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3rtim  tljp  iCibrartr  of 

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tl|?  ICtbrarg  of 

Urmcftnn  JSli^alogtral  &?mtttary 

BX  9084  .B3  1893 
Bayne,  Peter,  1830-1896 
The  Free  Church  of  Scotland 


Vi 


L^ 


WITH 

THE  PUBLISHERS' 

COMPLIM..:,!.;. 


THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND 


PRISTKD   BY   MORRISON   AND  OIBB,   TANFIELD, 
FOR 

T.  &  T.  CLARK,  EDINBURGH. 

LONDON:    SIMPKIN,    MARSHALL,    HAMILTON,    KENT,    AND   CO.    LIMITED. 
NEW    YORK  :     CHARLE.S   SCRIBNER'S   SONS. 
TORONTO  :     PRESBYTERIAN   NEWS   CO. 


THE 


FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND 


ORIGIN,     FOUNDERS 


TESTI  MON  Y 


/ 

By   peter   BAYNE.   LL.D. 


EDINBURGH 
T.    &    T.     CLARK,    38    GEORGE    STREET 

1893 


PREFACE. 


"pPtOFESSOR  GIBB  and  I  have  been  friends  since 
-*-  we  were  schoolfellows  in  Aberdeen  in  1843,  and 
it  is  in  no  small  measure  owing  to  his  encouragement,  and 
the  sympathy  and  furtherance  of  Professor  Salmond,  that 
this  volume  sees  the  light.  The  authorities  on  which 
I  rely  are  sufficiently  indicated  as  I  proceed,  special 
acknowledgments  bemg  due  to  the  standard  work  on 
the  Conflict  by  Dr.  Eobert  Buchanan.  I  studied  theology 
in  the  New  College  in  Cunningham's  time,  but  never 
applied  for  licence,  or  was  ordained.  When  Candlish 
was  in  summer  quarters  with  his  family  at  Kilcreggan 
in  1856,  I  became  intimately  acquainted  with  him.  The 
book  falls  far  short  of  what  I  hoped  it  might  be,  but  I 
offer  it  to  my  brothers  and  sisters  of  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland  as  an  expression,  sincere  though  inadequate, 
of  the  interest  taken  by  me  in  the  Jubilee,  and  of  the 
affection,  pride,  and  gratitude  with  which  I  look  upon 
this  branch  of  the  Eeformed  Catholic  Church. 

Paul  thought  that  he  had    been   specially  raised   up 


VI  PREFACE. 

to  do  apostolic  work  in  calling  the  Gentiles.  Calvin 
tliought  that  he  and  Luther  had  been  specially  raised 
up  to  do  apostolic  work  in  unveiling  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church,  obscured  by  worldliness  and  superstition.  We 
Free  Churchmen  are  justified  in  holding  that  the  group 
of  extraordinary  men,  who  led  the  Church  out  of  bondage 
in  1843,  were  similarly  fitted  and  appointed  to  do 
apostolic  work.  Let  us  not  imagine  that  theirs  was  not 
a  true  inspiration,  or  that  we  are  not  under  sacred 
obligation  to  have  regard  to  it,  because  it  was  bounded 
by  the  limit  of  Scripture. 

They  would  have  rejoiced  exceedingly  to  see  the 
Church  of  Scotland  formally  reconstructed,  but  they 
lield,  one  and  all,  that  the  condition  on  which  alone 
modern  States  and  statesmen  contemplate  Establishment, 
namely,  the  spiritual  subordination  of  the  Church  to  the 
State,  makes  the  acceptance  of  Establishment  a  sin. 
Trior  to  1843,  the  Church  of  Scotland  was  the  only 
State  Church  in  Christendom  which  Cunningham  and 
Candlish  recognised  as  placed  upon  a  basis  which  Clnis- 
tians  could  scripturally  defend.  By  an  act  of  usurpation 
on  the  part  of  the  Court  of  Session,  connived  at  by  the 
British  Parliament,  the  supreme  spiritual  jurisdiction  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  bestowed  upon  her  by  Christ, 
and  recognised  as  hers  in  the  Treaty  of  Union  between 
England  and  Scotland,  was  violated.  When  soft-hearted 
people  pleaded  for  mild  measures  with  the  schismatic 
l*resbyters  of  Stratlibogie,  and  referred  to  the   oath   of 


PREFACE.  VU 

allegiance  which  had  preceded  their  vows  of  ordination, 
Cunningham  pointed  out  that   their   oath   of   allegiance 
was  to  a  constitutional  sovereign,  and  could  not  pledge 
them  to  violate  the  constitution.      The  oath  of  allegiance 
could  not  pledge  any  man  to  pay  taxes  not  granted  by 
Parliament ;  and  Queen  Victoria,  said  Cunningham,  had 
no    more    constitutional   right   to   exercise   ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction   north   of   the   Tweed   than   to  raise   money 
at  her  will  and   pleasure.      If  Cunningham  was  wrong, 
then  cadAt  qucstio ;  the  Free  Church  is  a  ludicrous  mis- 
take.     But  it  is  absolutely  indubitable  that  Cunningham 
was  right.      There  is  at  this  hour  no  authority  on  the 
other   side.      The    Confession    of   Faith    is    embodied  in 
the   Treaty   of    Union,   and  the    O'Connell  is   not   born, 
and  never  will  be  born,  who  can  drive  coach  or  curricle 
through   the   memorable   and   glorious   clause   in  which, 
mainly  through  the  influence  of  Scotsmen,  the  spiritual 
independence    of    the    Church    stands    enrolled    in    the 
Westminster  Confession   of   Faith.      But   the  Treaty  of 
Union  has  not  been  formally  repealed.      You  cannot  ask 
Parhament  to  re-enact  it.     You  cannot  well  ask  Parlia- 
ment to  pass  a  law  promising  not  to  violate  it  in  future. 
You  want  no  freedom  or  jurisdiction  beyond  those  which 
Christ  has  bestowed.      The  only  course,  therefore,   that 
seems  at  once  rational  and  Christian  for  the  Presbyterians 
of  Scotland,  is  to  proceed  with  their  movements  towards 
union    on    grounds    pertaining   to  the    Church   and   the 
country,  leaving  the  State  entirely  out  of  consideration. 


vm  PREFACE. 

If  any  Presbyterians  in  Scotland  or  elsewhere  hold  that 
it  was  the  State  that  appointed  the  Lord  Jesus  Head  of 
the  Church,  and  that  therefore  the  ofiicers  of  the  Church 
are  at  liberty  to  ordam  and  depose  in  the  name  and  by 
authority  of  the  State,  they  are  in  schism, — that  is  alL 
Let  it  be  ascertained,  then,  to  begm  with,  whether  Presby- 
terians of  all  branches  in  Scotland  agree  in  holdmg  the 
doctrine  of  the  Headship. 

In  1856,  Candlish  said  that  the  Established  Church 
of  Scotland  was  thirteen  years  old,  while  the  Free  Church 
dated  from  1560.  This  was,  in  an  ob\dous  sense,  true. 
But  there  is  a  sense  m  which  the  Free  Church  was  born 
in  1843,  and  it  is  a  sense  which  ought  to  be  kept  in 
mind  at  the  Jubilee.  It  is  no  far-fetched  or  paradoxical 
statement  that,  ere  1843,  the  Church  of  Scotland  had 
become  too  Scottish, — too  much,  that  is  to  say,  a  merely 
local  and  national  Church.  In  the  sixteenth  century, 
under  the  influence  of  the  cosmopolitan  Knox  and  of 
the  colossal  Calvm,  whose  word,  teste,  Hooker,  was  law 
through  all  the  Eeformed  Churches,  she  shook  off  the 
errors  of  the  old  Eomish  Kirk,  and  arose  refreshed 
as  one  of  the  sisterhood  of  Eeformed  Churches.  In 
the  seventeenth,  eighteenth,  and  part  of  the  nineteenth 
centuries,  though  she  never  quite  forgot  her  catholicity, 
she  had,  without  knowmg  it,  dwmdled  into  a  narrower 
Church  than  that  of  Knox  and  Henderson.  In  1843 
she  was  called  once  more  to  go  forward, — to  realise  that 
the  world  was  her  field, — to  take  note  that  the  Church 


PREFACE.  IX 

of  Scotland  is  not  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament,  nor 
even  the  Church  of  Galilee,  but  that  the  Church  of 
Christ  has  marching  orders  until  the  planet  be  filled 
with  the  glory  of  God,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea.  It 
is  for  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  bringing  from  her 
treasuries  things  new  as  well  as  old,  and  old  as  well 
as  new,  to  recall  the  sympathies  and  sentiments  of 
those  days  when  John  Knox  and  the  bishops  of  the 
Church  of  Edward  VI.  were  engaged  in  one  enterprise  of 
Reform,  and  when  English  theologians,  essentially  Presby- 
terian, were  hewing  out  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of 
England  from  the  Latin  of  Calvin. 

The  Evangelicals  of  the  Church  of  England — and 
there  are  millions  of  them — detest  sacerdotalism,  believe 
in  the  Eeal  Presence  only  in  the  sense  of  Christ  in  the 
souls  of  His  people,  and  are  essentially  Presbyterian. 
But  they  have  no  voice.  They  are  spirits  in  prison. 
They  make  pitiful  appeal  to  the  Civil  Law,  and  receive 
their  reward  m  decisions  like  the  Lincoln  judgment. 
From  time  to  time  some  Bible  Christian  finds  that  he 
can  bear  it  no  longer,  and  writes  to  his  bishop,  as  the 
Eev.  Charles  Stirling,  of  New  Maiden,  wrote  to  the 
Bishop  of  Eochester,  last  November,  that  he  must  resign 
connection  with  an  Established  Church  whose  "  com- 
munion tables  are  turned  into  '  altars,'  her  ministers 
into  '  sacrificiag  priests,'  her  churches  into  '  mass-houses,' 
and  with  auricular  confession  inculcated,  practised,  and 
where  possible  enforced."     Meanwhile  the  Free  Church 


X  PRE  FACE. 

of  Ireland,  Episcopalian  but  Eeformed,  finding  that,  in 
some  church,  a  cross  had  been  placed,  or  was  to  be 
placed,  immediately  behind  the  communion  table,  dis- 
allowed and  prohibited  even  so  much  of  will-worship. 
Now,  I  have  no  manner  of  doubt  that  John  Knox  would 
have  been  ardently  in  sympathy  both  with  Mr.  Stirlmg 
and  the  Free  Church  of  Ireland,  and  that,  if  sacer- 
dotalism and  Erastianism  were  away,  he  would  have 
entered  cordially  into  communion  with  Episcopalian 
Churches. 

In  my  humble  but  earnest  opinion,  the  part  provi- 
dentially assigned  to  the  Free  Church,  in  connection 
witli  her  Jubilee,  is  cliiefly  this, — to  initiate  a  Eeformed 
Catholic  League,  putting  no  questions  about  ecclesiastical 
names  or  limitary  distinctions,  open  to  CongregationaHsts, 
Presbyterians,  Episcopalians,  Methodists,  and  stipulating 
only  that  their  law  is  the  Bible,  and  that  then-  Head  is 
Christ. 

P.  B. 

May  1893. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

I'AfiE 

The  Challenge,      .........         1 

CHAPTER  II. 
Glimp.ses  of  Okkjins,      ........         6 

CHAPTER  III. 
The  "Little  Kingdom," 22 


CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Evangelical  Revival  — "Tamson'vS  Men,"       ...       36 

CHAPTER  V. 
Thomson  in  a  Characteristic  Attitude,     '  .         .         .         .42 

CHAPTER  VI. 
A  Sudden  Change,         ........       48 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Non-Intrusion, .53 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
TuE  Veto  Act, 58 

zi 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

PAOK 

The  Chai'El  Ministers,  .......       60 

CHAPTER  X. 
Chalmeks  at  Wokk, 75 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Chalmeks  at  Play,         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .88 

CHAPTER  XII. 

The    Resi-ikjent    Church  —  The    Sudden    Storm  —  Auchtek- 

AKDEK, 92 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Pkeparing  for  the  Fray, 109 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Lord  Brougham  in  fine  Form,      .         .         .         .         .         ,116 

CHAPTER  XV. 
The  Church  takes  up  her  Position— A  New  Leader,  .     120 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
The  Agitation  deepening — The  "  Witness,"  .         .         .     133 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
The  Rise  ok  Candlish, 143 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
The  Dean  of  Faculty ir>l 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
The  Church  ou  the  Court  of  Session,  ....     IfiS 


CONTENTS.  xm 

CHAPTER  XX. 

PAGE 

Law  and  Gospel — The  Lethendy  Case,  .         .         .         .162 

CHArTER  XXI. 
Law  and  Gospel — The  Reel  of  Bogie,  .         .         .         .169 

CHAPTER  XXIL 
Laav  and  Gospel — Marnoch, 178 

CHAPTER  XXIIL 
The  Assembly  of  1841 — Patp.onage, 184 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
The  Moderates  Strike  their  Flag, 188 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
The  Scottish  Hildeebrand,    .......     192 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
Guthrie, 202 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 
Candlish  in  Shoals  and  Quicksands, 216 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
Lord  Melbourne  again, 224 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 
The  Claim  of  Rights, 229 

CHAPTER  XXX. 
Forecastings  of  the  Convocation, 242 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 
The  Convocation, 250 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

PACE 

Thk  Coi'KT  OF  Session's  last  Triumphs 260 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

Thk    Debate    in    the  Commons — An    imaginary    Speech    by 

Guthrie,  .........     273 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 
Thank  God  !   they  come,  they  come  !    .         .         .         .         .     297 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 
The  Queen's  Letter,      ........     305 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 
The  Freic  Church,         ........      308 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 
The  Testimony 313 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 
The  Sustentation  Fund, 318 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 
The  Missionaries,  .........     325 

CHAPTER  XL. 
RovAi,  Chalmers,    .         .         .  .  .         .  .  ...     331 

CHAPTER  XLI. 

CUNNINOHAM,    SCHOLAR    AND    CONTROVERSIALIST,  .  .  .       334 

CHAPTER  XLII. 
Candlish  and  Union — James  Hamilton,         ....     339 


*^f*  In  addition  to  the  List  of  Works  by  Professors  and  Ministers  of  the 
Free  Church  at  the  end  of  this  volume,  the  following  were  published  by 
Messrs.  Clark,  but  are  now  out  of  print : — 

By  the  late  Professor  JAMES  BANNERMAN,  D.D. 

Inspiration:    The  Infallible   Truth  and   Divine   Authority  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures. 

By  the  late  Professor  JAMES  BUCHANAN,  D.D. 
The  Doctrine  of  Justification. 

By  the  late  Principal  CUNNINGHAM,  D.D. 

Refoi-niers  and  Theology  of  the  Reformation. 

Discussions   on   Church  Fririciples :    Popish,   Erastian,  and  Pres- 
byterian. 
Sermons  {Selection  of),  1828  to  1860. 

By  the  late  Principal  FAIRBAIRN,  D.D. 

The   Typology  of  Scripture,  viewed  in   connection  with  the  whole 

Series  of  Divine  Dispensations. 
Hermeneutical  Manual ;  or,  Introduction  to  the  Exegetical  Study  of 

the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament. 
The  Pastmal  Epistles.     The  Greek  Text  and  Translation.      With 

Introduction,  Expository  Notes,  and  Dissertations. 

Ezekiel  and  the  Book  of  his  Prophecy. 

By  the  late  T.  M'LAUCHLAN,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
The  Early  Scottish  Church. 

By  the  late  Professor  SMEATON,  D.D. 

The  Doctrine  of  the  Atonement  as  Taught  by  Christ  Himself. 
The  Doctrine  of  the  Atonement  as  Taught  by  the  Aimstles. 


Note. — A  large  number  of  important  Translations  from  Greek,  Latin, 
French,  German,  and  Dutch,  have  been  executed  by  Ministers  of  tiie  Free 
Church. 


THE 

FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

CHAPTEE  I. 
t^e  C^affenge. 

THE  greatest  of  the  men  who,  with  more  or  less  of 
arbitrarmess,  may  be  marked  off  as  a  group,  and 
named  by  pre-eminence  the  Founders  of  the  Free  Churcli 
of  Scotland,  was  Thomas  Chalmers.  A  shining  figure, 
with  a  moral  radiancy  about  him  that  conveyed  to  noble 
natures,  though  not  of  enthusiastic  temperament,  as 
notably  to  Jeffrey,  a  suggestion  of  majesty  approaching 
to  inspiration.  Strength  and  tenderness,  decision  and 
sympathy,  poetry  and  prose,  were  in  him  singularly  if  not 
imiquely  blended.  He  was  an  early  lover  of  Keble's  poetry, 
— a  fact  w^hich,  if  we  think  of  it,  will  in  his  position  mean 
much.  But,  indeed,  it  was  a  part,  magna  pars,  of  his 
originality  to  combine  into  living  and  harmonious  unity 
what  one  miglit  call  polar  opposites.  Aglow  with  spiritual 
ardour,  moving  always  in  the  light  of  a  heavenly  ideal,  he 
was  yet  passionately  practical.  He  soared  in  spirit  with 
Keble  round  the  whole  circle  of  the  Christian  year,  and 

X 


2  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

lie  would  have  won  Bailie  Nicol  Jarvie's  heart  l)y  dis- 
cussing methods  and  measurements,  ways  and  means. 
He  believed  in  Churches  as  incarnations  of  Christ ;  he 
believed  in  Churches  as  stone  walls  and  as  State  Estab- 
lishments. His  name  summons  up  to  the  imagination 
all  that  is  best  in  the  dream  or  in  the  reality  of  State 
Churches  :  their  dignity,  their  comparative  repose  of  in- 
tellect and  feeling ;  their  order,  their  permanence ;  their 
division  of  the  vineyard,  the  world,  into  separate  parochial 
portions,  so  that  none  may  escape  the  labourer's  eye,  so 
that  to  each  and  all  of  them  may  be  brought  down  the 
sunbeams  and  the  dews  of  God.  But  if  no  man  ever 
appreciated  more  highly  than  he  the  commodiousness, 
comeliness,  and  utility  of  an  Established  Church,  no 
man  ever  laid  it  down  as  a  more  imperious  necessity  that 
the  Church  should  be  free  and  not  in  bondage,  alive  and 
not  dead. 

In  the  spring  of  1838  we  find  Chalmers  delivering  a 
series  of  lectures  in  defence  of  State  Establishments  of 
religion  in  the  metropolis  of  England.  The  great  world 
was  moved  beyond  what  it  is  easy  for  the  present  genera- 
tion to  imagine.  Hanover  Square  Eooms  were  thronged 
with  a  glittering  crowd,  —  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  barons,  earls,  marquises,  dukes,  one  of  these 
lieing  of  the  Blood  Ptoyal.  Chalmers  had  always  been 
chivalrously  courteous  in  his  references  to  the  Church  of 
England,  and  nine  Anglican  prelates  now  hung  upon  his 
lips.  He  counselled  them  to  quit  the  plea  of  "  exclusive 
apostolical  derivation,"  and,  depending  on  the  realities  and 
practicalities  of  Christian  beneficence,  to  make  themselves 
standard-bearers   in    the   sacred    enterprise   of    diffusing 


THE  CHALLENGE.  3 

throughout  the  families  of  England  "  those  waters  of  life 
which  can  alone  avail  for  the  healing  of  the  nation."  The 
words  might  have  penetrated  to  John  Henry  Newman,  as 
he  sat  bodeful  at  Oxford,  agonised  with  the  suspicion 
that  his  adored  Church  of  England,  instead  of  being  an 
integral  part  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  would  turn 
out  after  all  to  be  a  mere  national  and  political  institu- 
tion. 

But  it  was  not  the  Church  of  England,  much  as  he 
agreed  with  its  Bible  party,  highly  as  he  honoured  its 
Shaftesburys,  dearly  as  he  prized  its  capabilities  of  secur- 
ing for  the  poor  the  ministrations  of  the  rich,  that 
Chalmers  took  as  the  type  and  model  of  those  ecclesi- 
astical establishments  which  he  championed  and  loved. 
It  was  a  Church  that  had  never  sought  to  bask  in  the 
glitter  of  baronial  coronets,  but  which,  whether  in  friendly 
alliance  with  the  State  or  hunted  like  David  as  a  part- 
ridge, had  maintained  her  spiritual  independence  and 
asserted  her  right  to  govern  herself  by  the  law  of  her 
heavenly  King.  He  claimed,  indeed,  on  behalf  of  the 
('hurch  of  Scotland,  no  exclusive  derivation  from  the 
apostles,  no  sacerdotal  privilege,  no  superiority  of  a 
clerical  caste  above  the  body  of  Christians;  but  he  treated 
it  as  indisputable  that,  in  spiritual  matters,  she  was  as 
autocratic  as  the  State  itself. 

Chalmers  did  not  seem  to  have  the  slightest  shyness 
or  dubiety  in  laying  this  view  of  the  Established  Church 
of  Scotland  before  his  audience.  He  treated  it  as  some- 
thing for  which  an  intelligent  English  audience  might 
be  held  to  be  prepared ;  a  matter  of  acknowledged 
fact,    historically    blazoned,    and    familiar     to     educated 


4  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

men.  "  We  own,"  he  said,  "  no  Head  of  the  Church 
but  the  Lord  Jesus."  "  There  is  not  one  thing 
which  the  State  can  do  to  our  independent  and  inde- 
structible Church  but  strip  her  of  her  temporahties." 
"  She  was  as  much  a  Churcli  in  her  days  of  suffering  as 
in  her  days  of  outward  security  and  triumph ;  when  a 
wandering  outcast,  with  nought  but  the  mountain  breezes 
to  play  around  her,  and  nought  but  the  caves  of  the 
earth  to  shelter  her,  as  now,  when  admitted  to  the  bowers 
of  an  Establishment.  The  magistrate  might  withdraw  his 
protection,  and  she  might  cease  to  be  an  Establishment 
any  longer ;  but  in  all  the  high  matters  of  sacred  and 
spiritual  jurisdiction,  she  would  be  the  same  as  before. 
"With  or  without  an  Establishment,  she,  in  these,  is  the 
unfettered  mistress  of  her  doings.  The  king  by  himself, 
or  by  his  representative,  might  be  the  spectator  of  our 
proceedings  ;  but  what  Lord  Chatham  said  of  the  poor 
man's  house  is  true  in  all  its  parts  of  the  Chiu'ch  to 
which  I  have  the  honour  to  belong — '  In  England  every 
man's  house  is  his  castle  :  not  that  it  is  surrounded  with 
walls  and  battlements — it  may  be  a  straw-built  shed ; 
every  wind  of  heaven  may  whistle  round  it ;  every 
element  of  heaven  may  enter  it ;  but  the  king  cannot — 
the  king  dare  not.'  " 

At  this  point  Chalmers  reached  that  climax  of  orator- 
ical vehemence  which  recalled  to  learned  observers  what 
they  had  read  of  Demosthenes,  or  what  Cicero  says  of 
the  tempest-like,  torrent-like  power  of  supreme  oratory. 
Eye-witnesses  have  spoken  of  the  almost  convulsive 
working  of  Chalmers's  features  on  such  occasions,  the 
eyes    gleaming    as    with    liquid    fire.       His   magnificent 


THE  CHALLENGE.  5 

audience,  as  if  moved  by  a  spell,  rose  by  a  common  im- 
pulse and  gazed  upon  him.  Confident  as  he  was  of  his 
position  and  foothold,  —  ardent  as  was  the  assentient 
sympathy  of  his  aristocratic  and  hierarchical  hearers,— 
he  had  practically  uttered  a  challenge  to  which  the 
answer  was  given  at  the  Disruption. 


CHAPTEE  11. 

^fimpBCB  of  ^viQirxB. 

"  "l^rE  own  no  head  of  the  Church  but  the  Lord  Jesus." 
"  '  Did  Chalmers,  when  he  referred  to  this  as  a 
differentiating  mark  and  chief  note  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, indulge  in  one  of  those  generahties  of  Christian 
sentiment  that  are  too  vague  to  be  available  for  purposes 
of  practical  definition  ?  Assuredly  not.  Those  Avho  have 
known  Scotland  and  the  Church  of  Scotland  best  have 
been  on  this  point  of  the  same  mind  with  Chalmers. 
Knox,  Henderson,  Melville  knew  the  character  of  their 
Church,  and  Queen  Elizaljeth  and  the  Stuarts  made  no 
mistake  about  it.  When  Thomas  Carlyle  pronounced  the 
white  heat  of  enthusiasm  into  which  his  countrymen  rose 
in  their  fidelity  to  Christ's  Crown  and  Covenant  to  have 
been  the  main  influence  in  forming  the  national  character 
of  Scotland,  he  was  not  misled  by  a  sonorous  phrase  or 
a  symbolic  pageant.  It  will  be  indispensable  for  us  to 
look  somewhat  closely  into  this  matter. 

The  Keformation,  it  is  allowed  on  all  hands,  was  in 
Scotland  a  movement  among  the  great  body  of  the  people. 
The  Bible  in  the  vernacular  tongue  entered  early  from 


GLIMPSES  OF  ORIGINS.  7 

England,  and  between  all  sections  of  what  may  be  called 
the  Bible  party  in  England  and  in  Scotland  there  has 
been,  since  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  beneath 
superficial  differences,  a  profound  sympathy.  As  against 
the  Papacy,  the  statesmen  Reformers  who  sat  about 
the  Council-board  of  Edward  VI.,  and  the  preaching 
Reformers  who  cradled  the  Church  of  Scotland,  were 
cordially  at  one.  Neither  in  England  nor  in  Scotland 
was  there  at  that  time  a  passionate  preference  for  or  a 
passionate  decision  agaimt  Episcopacy.  The  sentiment  was 
then  as  good  as  universal,  both  in  Great  Britain  and  on 
the  Continent,  among  those  on  the  side  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, that  the  sacerdotalism  of  Rome  ought  to  be  abjured, 
and  that  Episcopacy,  if  retained  at  all  in  the  Reformed 
Church,  should  be  little  or  nothing  more  than  a  superin- 
tendency  among  equals  for  purposes  of  order. 

But  on  one  point  the  Reformers  of  Scotland  set  their 
faces  as  flint  against  the  statesmen  Reformers  of  England. 
They  had  learned,  either  directly  from  the  New  Testament, 
or  from  that  apostle  of  the  second  stage  of  the  Reformation, 
who  w^as  its  Augustine  and  its  Cyprian  in  one,  that,  in  | 
rejecting  the  Papacy,  they  did  not  go  beyond  the  pale  of 
the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  or  pass  out  of  allegiance  to  her 
sole  King  and  Head.  More  and  Fisher  could  not  have 
written  in  their  blood  a  darker  sentence  upon  Henry 
VIII.'s  sin  of  assuming  the  headship  over  Christ's  Church 
than  Calvin  supplied  them  in  the  word  by  which  he 
characterised  it,  "  blasphemy."  But  for  his  fear  to  make 
himself  a  partaker  in  that  sin,  John  Knox  might  prob- 
ably have  accepted  the  bishopric  which  Edward  pressed 
upon  him.     Placed  by  the  providence  of  God    between 


8  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

the  discredited  Catholicism  of  the  Papacy  on  this  hand 
and  the  Erastianism  of  the  English  monarchs  on  that, 
the  Eeformers  of  Scotland  found  it  assigned  to  them 
as  a  sacred  duty  to  vindicate,  exalt,  bear  witness  to,  the 
Crown  Bights  of  the  Eedeemer,  the  privileges,  powers, 
duties  of  tlie  Holy  Catholic  Churcli,  tlie  visible  kingdom 
of  Christ  upon  earth. 

Such  was  the  august  part  which  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, "  the  Presbyterian  Church,  so  proud  and  stubborn," 
as  Hallam  calls  her,  undertook.  She  undertook  it  in 
express  remembrance  and  recognition,  amid  her  own 
troubles  and  while  the  dust  of  the  great  Eeformation 
earthquake  was  in  the  air,  of  the  share  of  "  all  nations  " 
in  the  Catholic  Church.  She  undertook  it — this  has 
been  fairly  admitted  even  by  her  adversaries — in  a  spirit 
of  antique  Christian  superiority  to  the  things  of  this 
world,  uninfluenced  by  the  spectacle  of  the  glittering 
emoluments  that  reconciled  the  Church  of  England  to 
\  Erastian  bondage.  Christ  and  the  Bible, — these  were 
the  watchwords  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  The  Church 
claimed  no  right  to  add  to  Scripture,  nor  did  she  profess 
to  transfer  from  the  individual  soul,  by  any  infallibility 
of  her  own,  the  responsibility  of  ascertaining  the  meaning 
of  Scripture.  But  in  all  spiritual  matters  the  Bible  was 
her  law,  and  in  framing  her  own  bye-laws  in  spiritual 
matters,  her  appeal  was  to  Scripture  alone.  "  The  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  as  King  and  Head  of  His  Church,  hath 
therein  appointed  a  government  in  the  hand  of  Church 
officers  distinct  from  the  civil  magistrate."  The  Head- 
ship of  Christ  means,  in  one  word,  that  Christ  is  to  be 
all    in   all    to    His  Church,  and  that  she,  clad    only  in 


GLIMPSES  OF  ORIGINS.  » 

spiritual  armour,  and  bearing  none  Lut  spiritual  weapons, 
is  to  conquer  the  planet  in  His  name. 

We  cannot  do  anything  more  practical  in  regard  to 
this  or  any  other  Christian  doctrine  than  ask  what  coun- 
tenance does  it  derive  from  Christ.  And  it  must  be 
granted  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Headship  bears  this  test 
well.  From  first  to  last,  the  Divine  Personality,  whose 
presence  is  the  greatest  of  New  Testament  miracles, 
identifies  His  work  with  the  foundation  of  a  kingdom. 
His  gospel,  as  announced  in  what  is  now  generally 
regarded  as  the  earliest  of  the  evangelical  records,  that 
of  St.  Mark,  is  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom.  So  much 
w\as  this  a  matter  of  course,  that  even  Nathanael  under- 
stood it :  "  Thou  art  the  King  of  Israel."  It  was  the 
Divine  kingship  that  the  Apostle  Peter  attested,  on  a 
cardinal  occasion,  in  response  to  Christ ;  and  it  was  upon 
this  truth,  to  w^it,  the  truth  of  His  kingship,  that  He 
promised  to  plant  His  Church.  In  that  truth — His 
kingship — would  lie  the  secret  of  her  strength.  While  she 
loved  and  exalted  her  King — while  His  Spirit  irradiated 
her  tabernacles — while  she  continued  to  advance  to  ever 
new  conquests  in  His  name — the  gates  of  Hades  should 
not  prevail  against  her. 

That  the  kingdom  thus  announced  was  spiritual,  and 
not  without  mystery,  cannot  be  denied.  Peter,  overjoyed 
when  he  first  caught  the  sunrise  gleam  of  it  in  the  words 
of  Christ,  was  perplexed  and  offended  to  learn  that,  after 
all,  it  was  bound  up  with  suffering,  with  sorrow,  with  self- 
sacrificing  pain.  Officious  followers,  who  would  take  Christ 
by  force  to  make  Him  a  king,  received  no  encouragement. 
An  attempt  to  bring  Him  in  as  a  decider,  in  cases  of  dis- 


10  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

pute  as  to  property,  drew  from  Him  a  distinct  disclaimer 
of  right  or  obligation  to  interfere  with  the  ordinary  course 
of  civil  and  criminal  administration :  "  Who  made  me  a 
judge  or  a  divider  over  you  ? "  Physical  force  was  indis- 
pensable for  that.  And  when  His  amazed  and  no  doubt 
bitterly  disappointed  adherents  found  that  He  did  not 
dispose  of  the  officers  who  came  to  arrest  Him  by  calling 
down  fire  on  them  from  heaven,  He  told  Peter  to  put  up 
liis  sword  into  its  sheath,  and  cabnly  surrendered  to  His 
captors. 

Pilate  would  have  learned,  were  it  but  from  the 
clamours  of  the  crowd,  that  Jesus  was  accused  of  blas- 
phemy in  claiming  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  and  of  treason 
in  claiming  to  be  the  king  of  Israel.  From  his  first 
questioning  of  the  accused,  he  had  probably  arrived  at  a 
confused  notion  that  he  had  to  deal  wdth  some  singular 
Jewish  fanatic,  and  it  seems  impossible  to  doubt  that  the 
personality  of  Christ  had  made  an  impression  on  him. 
He  therefore  tried  in  an  ineffectual  way  to  turn  the 
crowd  in  His  favour.  But  the  renewed  cries  about  the 
kingship  startled  him,  and  returning  to  Christ's  presence, 
"  Ai't  thou  then,"  he  asked,  "  a  king  ? "  To  this  the 
answer  was  explicit,  "  I  am  a  King.  To  this  end 
was  I  born,  and  for  this  came  I  into  the  world."  The 
words  immediately  following,  if  we  must  take  them  with 
rigorous  literalism  as  they  stand,  refer  to  a  general 
witness  -  bearing,  on  Christ's  part,  to  "  the  truth."  But 
nothing  is  more  distinctive  of  the  manner  of  Christ  than 
His  sound  logic.  His  avoidance  of  abstractions  and 
generalities,  and  His  specification  of  concrete  particulars. 
Every  rabbi  and  every  philosopher  professed   to   teach 


GLIMPSES  OF  ORIGINS.  1 1 

truth,  but  did  not  claim  a  kingdom.  It  appears  to  be  in 
the  highest  degree  probable,  therefore,  that  His  reference 
was  to  "  this  truth,"  namely,  the  truth  that  Pilate  had 
expressed,  i.e.  the  truth  of  the  kingship.  At  all  events, 
we  have  the  declaration  before  Pilate  that  the  object 
of  His  coming  into  the  world  was  to  establish  a 
kingdom. 

It  certainly  need  in  no  case  surprise  us  that  the  truth 
connected  with  Christ's  kingship  should  have  perplexed 
Pilate,  for  spiritual  kingship,  resting  on  no  visible  power 
or  pageant,  might  well  be  a  mystery  to  the  servant  of 
Kome.  Nineteen  centuries,  however,  of  Christian  civil- 
isation have  taught  mankind  that  spiritual  force  is  no 
vain  imagination,  no  vapour  of  a  heated  brain.  Where, 
to-day,  are  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  that  stood 
strong  on  that  evening  when  Pilate  broke  impatiently 
away  from  Jesus  Christ,  without  waiting  to  hear  what 
kind  of  truth  could  be  bound  up  with  His  crazy 
kingdom  ?  The  spiritual  power  is  the  mightiest  of 
powers,  whether  in  the  individual  breast  or  in  the  society 
of  men.  And  this  at  least  is  certain,  that  in  the  course 
of  nineteen  centuries  the  spiritual  kingship  of  Christ, 
though  it  has  turned  into  new  channels  the  whole 
current  of  civilisation,  has  but  given  earnest  of  its 
potentiality,  and  promise  of  its  ultimate  conquests. 
Having  done  so  mucli,  since  He  told  Pilate  He  had  been 
born  to  be  a  King,  the  Church  and  the  world  may  trust 
Him  to  do  more.  And  all  that  is  wise  and  thought- 
ful in  the  intelligence  of  our  time,  both  religious  and 
scientific,  agrees  on  one  point  with  those  Reformers 
and  Covenanters  who  rejoiced   in  Christ  as  their  King, 


12  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

namely,  that  He  was  and  is  the  epitome  of  Christianity, 
and  that  the  Church  is  likely  to  be  of  use  to  the 
world  in  proportion  to  the  sincerity,  simpKcity,  and 
efficiency  with  which  she  aims  at  realising  His  kingdom 
upon  earth. 

Since,  then.  He  by  no  means  left  the  truth  as  to  His 
kingdom  in  the  inchoate  state  which  Pilate  imagined, 
it  will  be  well  to  ask  whether  anything  can  be  learned 
from  Him  with  precision  upon  the  subject. 

It  is  impossible  to  read  the  Gospels  intelligently  once 
witliout  perceiving,  and  if  we  read  them  fifty  times  we 
shall  be  only  the  more  firmly  persuaded,  that  Jesus 
Christ  addressed  Himself  to  man's  spirit,  working  from 
the  spirit  outward,  and  that  He  dealt  with  principles, 
not  with  forms.  Inflexible  as  adamant  in  matters  of 
principle, — "  make  the  tree  good,"  "  sell  all  thou  hast," 
"  ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon,"-*— He  was  flexile  as 
water  in  relation  to  methods,  forms,  non-essentials.  His 
words  were  spirit  and  life.  "  The  flesh  profiteth  nothing." 
Not  institutions,  but  the  spirit  and  life  of  institutions, 
did  He  aim  at  renewing.  Know^ing  human  nature, 
apprehending  all  the  essential  facts  of  liuman  society. 
He  foresaw  their  possible  modifications,  and  provided  a 
moral  life,  a  spiritual  truth,  that  might  circulate  through 
them  all. 

Take  this  matter  of  His  Church.  Though  not  forget- 
ful of  the  natural  aptitude  subsisting  between  new  wine 
and  new  bottles,  He  took,  as  if  it  were  a  matter  of  course, 
the  Hebrew  synagogue  as  serving  all  essential  purposes 
re(|uired  by  Him  in  giving  an  object  lesson  on  the 
discipline  of  the   Christian  Ecclesia.      Nothing  could  be 


GLimrSES  OF  ORIGINS.  1 3 

simpler  than  the  whole  matter  as  we  have  it  traced, 
with  light  but  unerring  touch,  in  the  eighteenth  chapter 
of  St.  Matthew's  Gospel.  If  Christian  is  offended  with 
Christian, — if  the  law  of  the  brotherhood,  the  law  of  duty 
and  charity,  seems  to  be  broken, — the  offended  brother  is, 
first  of  all,  to  try  personal  remonstrance,  obviously  of  as 
quiet  a  kind  as  may  be,  with  the  offending  brother.  "  If 
he  shall  hear  thee,  thou  hast  gained  thy  brother."  If  he 
turns  a  deaf  ear,  the  method  of  informal  remonstrance 
is  still  to  be  persisted  in ;  but  now  the  presence  of  two  or 
three  more  is  invoked,  so  that  kindly  reason  may  soften 
the  obdurate  one.  If  he  still  is  perverse,  then  "  tell  it 
mito  the  Church  ; "  and  if  he  flouts  the  Church,  "  let  him 
be  unto  thee  as  an  heathen  man  and  a  publican." 

This  is  the  utmost  stretch  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  as 
warranted  by  Christ.  So  long  as  the  Christian  brother- 
hood, the  Christian  Church,  is  in  this  world,  it  is  inevit- 
able that  the  refusal  of  Christian  fellowship,  the  treatment 
of  a  man  as  a  heathen  or  publican,  will  have  indirect 
effects.  It  is  in  the  nature  of  the  case  impossible  that 
his  social  repute  should  remain  iniaffected.  But,  beyond 
this  necessary  implication,  the  Church  is  not  supplied 
with  an  iota  of  force,  whether  her  own  or  the  State's, 
wherewith  to  give  effect  to  her  withdrawal  of  spiritual 
privileges.  A  heavenly  sanction  of  the  earthly  decision 
is  promised, — ^that  is  all.  Alas,  how  different  would  the 
history  of  Christendom,  Primitive,  Popish,  or  Protest- 
ant, have  been  had  Christ's  limits  of  discipline  been 
observed  !  But  though  absolute  renunciation  of  physical 
force  took  place  in  the  exercise  of  Christian  discipline, 
it  was  transacted  directly  under  the  Master's  eye  and 


14  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

with  intervention  of  none  between  Him  and  His  Church. 
"  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  Whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on 
earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven :  and  whatsoever  ye 
shall  loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven."  To  obey 
Christ  is  the  liberty  of  Christians. 

Perfectly  simple  as  Christ's  sketch  of  discipline  is,  it 
comprises  by  implication  all  that  is  essential  to  the 
freedom  and  the  autonomy  of  the  Church.  Is  it  not 
obvious,  even  on  grounds  of  common  sense,  that  such  a 
society  should  be  governed  by  a  spiritual  law  of  its  own, 
and  not  as  a  department  of  the  political  administration  ? 
The  right  to  include  or  exclude  members  may  be  looked 
upon  as  inherent  in  the  very  nature  of  free  association. 
We  need  not  hesitate,  then,  to  say — -what  has  indeed 
been  generally  held — that  the  opinion  of  Erastus,  to  the 
effect  that  the  Christian  Church  has  no  power  of  any 
kind  except  what  it  derives  from  the  State,  is  a  mere 
extravagance  of  flighty  argumentation.  It  ought  to  be 
distinctly  realised  that,  even  in  the  heyday  of  Moderate 
ascendancy,  the  Church  of  Scotland  always  rejected,  and 
completely  rejected,  the  flimsy  speciosities  of  Erastianism. 
Ur.  George  Hill,  of  St.  Andrews,  one  of  the  most  illustrious 
leaders  of  the  party,  and  one  who,  by  the  candour  of  his 
judgment  and  the  comprehensiveness  of  his  intellectual 
glance,  and  his  admirable  lucidity  and  tolerance,  would 
have  shed  lustre  upon  any  party,  says  of  the  Erastian 
view,  that  "  it  seems  impossible  for  any  person  whose 
mind  comprehends  the  whole  subject,  not  to  perceive 
that  the  opinion  is  false."  This  golden  candlestick  of 
Moderatism  had  no  difficulty  in  realising  the  Church  as 
apart   from   and   independent   of   the    State.       "  As  the 


GLIMPSES  OF  ORIGINS.  1  5 

Church  did  exist  before  it  was  united  with  the  State,  it 
may  exist  without  any  such  union."  "  It  will  possess,  in 
this  state  of  separation,  when  it  can  derive  no  aid  from 
civil  regulations,  all  the  authority  which  Christ  meant  to 
convey  through  His  apostles  to  their  successors,  and  of 
the  exercise  of  which  the  apostles  have  left  examples." 
"  When  the  Church  receives  the  protection  and  counten- 
ance of  the  Civil  Power,  she  does  not,  by  this  alliance, 
lose  those  rights  and  powers  which  are  implied  in  Church 
government  as  such."  "If  the  Church,  instead  of  deriv- 
ing any  beneiit  from  the  State,  were  opposed  and 
persecuted  by  the  Civil  Magistrate,  it  would  be  not  only 
proper,  but  necessary,  to  put  forth  of  herself  those  powers 
which,  in  more  favourable  circumstances,  she  chooses  only 
to  exercise  in  conjunction  with  the  State."  In  short, 
"  the  power  inherent  in  the  nature  of  the  Christian 
society "  is  derived  "  from  Divine  institution  and  not 
from  civil  regulation."  No  recognition  of  the  independ- 
ent spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  could  be  more 
unequivocal,  nor  is  its  validity  in  any  measure  im- 
paired by  the  addition  that,  when  arrangements  as  to 
emolument  are  made  between  States  and  Churches, 
the  latter  must  take  into  consideration,  in  the  exercise 
of  their  jurisdiction,  the  views  and  requirements  of  the 
former.^ 

Among  the  principles  which  Christ  enunciated  as 
absolutely  binding  on  His  followers — immutable  amid  tlie 
wildest  fantasies  of  superficial  change — was  that  of  their 
equality  among  themselves.  "  All  ye  are  brethren." 
And  since  men  will  err  in  the  application  of  principles, 

1  Hill's  Lectures,  Book  vi.  chap.  iii. 


16  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

as  well  as  from  sheer  ignorance  of  their  existence,  He 
explains  His  meaning  still  further :  "  Ye  know  that 
they  which  are  accounted  to  rule  over  the  Gentiles 
exercise  lordship  over  them ;  and  their  great  ones 
exercise  authority  upon  them.  But  so  shall  it  not  be 
among  you ;  but  wliosoever  will  l)e  iireat  among  you, 
shall  be  your  minister :  and  whosoever  of  you  will 
be  the  chiefest,  shall  be  servant  of  all."  The  Divine 
wisdom  of  this  appears  first  in  its  clear  apprehension  of 
the  indispensability  of  official  subordination  in  all  cases 
of  co-operative  effort,  in  all  forms  of  organised  activity. 
The  man  who  cannot  defer  to,  and  take  directions  from, 
his  official  superior,  is  an  incurable,  infra-human  anarch. 

But  Christ  not  merely  realises  this  necessity ;  He 
realises,  in  the  second  place,  and  provides  against,  the 
tendency,  which  has  manifested  itself  in  all  ages,  of 
official  superintendence  to  pass  into  lordship.  Hence 
hereditary  aristocracies  and  superstitiously  reverenced 
castes.  It  is  iiupossible  not  to  see  in  Christ's  reference 
to  lordship  amongst  the  Gentiles,  a  conclusive  proof  that 
He  had  His  eye  upon  these  things.  It  is  inconceivable 
that  one  who  was  thus  on  His  guard  against  the  petri- 
faction of  officialism  into  caste  and  lordship,  should 
stamp  Divine  precedence  upon  one  class  of  officials.  As 
the  times  altered,  and  the  signs  of  the  times,  the  grades 
and  forms  and  names  of  officialism  might  change,  but 
lordship  was  never  to  be  allowed  to  emerge ;  Christian 
equality  was  never,  under  whatever  pretences  of  sanctity 
or  promises  of  advantage,  to  be  compromised. 

A  Divine  discernment  of  principles,  a  Divine  oppor- 
tunism— regard  to  circumstances  of  time,  requirement,  and 


GLIMPSES  OF  OKIGINS.  17 

capability — in  the  application  of  principles  ;  such  was  the 
method  of  Christ.  Even  upon  His  own  extemporised 
organisation  of  the  Seventy  He  did  not  permit  the  mark 
of  perpetuity  to  rest.  He  dissolved  and  discarded  it  when 
done  with.  The  duty  of  oversight — call  it  episcopacy, 
if  any  one  likes — will  remain  as  long  as  organised  activity 
remains.  The  gift  of  leadership  is  altogether  invaluable 
in  action  where  large  multitudes  are  engaged  in  common 
operations,  and  the  accompaniments  of  its  exercise  are 
(puckening  and  dehghtful ;  but  if,  under  stress  of  cir- 
cumstance and  by  lapse  of  time,  the  true  Christian 
superintendency  or  episcopacy  had  become  inextricably 
involved,  say,  with  the  baronial  lordship  of  feudalism, 
might  it  not  have  been  in  closest  accordance  with  the 
spirit  and  method  of  Christ  to  divest  it  of  its  baronial 
garnitures,  and  reduce  it  to  the  parity  of  Christian 
brotherhood  ?  On  this  point  the  Church  in  which 
Principal  Hill  was  a  leader,  and  of  which  Chalmers  was 
a  defender,  had  been  sensitively  jealous,  impressing 
friends  and  foes  alike  with  her  insistence  upon  Presby- 
terian parity. 

And  now  we  must  touch,  if  but  briefly,  upon  the 
dehcate  and  difficult  question  of  the  formation  of  the 
pastoral  tie  between  ministers  and  their  flocks.  Under 
primitive,  and  what  might  be  styled  normal,  conditions, 
the  act  of  constituting  the  pastoral  relationship  involves 
harmonious  co  -  operation  between  three  parties, —  the 
congregation,  the  pastor,  and  the  aggregate  of  congre- 
gations. The  pastor  and  the  people  must  have  mutual 
suitability,  and  the  sympathetic  co  -  operation  of  the 
aggregate    of    congregations,  guaranteeing   in   so   far   as 

2 


18  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

is  practicable  the  quality  of  the  pastor,  comes  in  to 
heighten  the  joy  and  to  deepen  the  consecration.  This 
is  simple,  natural,  and,  as  we  should  therefore  have 
expected,  correspondent  to  the  pattern  shown  in  the 
New  Testament.  The  settlement  having,  on  these 
terms,  taken  place,  the  pastor  remains  to  be  an 
"  example  to  the  Hock,"  not  a  priest  but  a  minister- 
ing servant,  the  Christ  in  him  responding  to  the  Christ 
in  them. 

But  suppose  now,  that  in  course  of  time  the  beautiful 
simplicity  of  the  apostolic  ideal  has  been  marred,  and 
that  the  necessity  of  providing  meat  and  raiment  for 
the  pastor  has  gradually  brought  parish  livings  within 
the  circle  of  those  things  that  rank  as  property. 
This  will  produce  modifications.  The  new  elements, 
hinted  at  by  Principal  Hill,  introduced  into  the  situation 
by  State  connection  and  the  system  of  patronage,  will 
tend  to  throw  the  spiritualities  we  have  been  speaking 
of  into  the  background,  and  to  bring  into  view  sundry 
other  things.  Glancing  into  Lord  Macaulay's  biography, 
one  comes  upon  the  following  jotting  from  his  journal 
for  May  5,  1859:  "Glorious  weather.  A  letter  from 
Lord  John  to  say  that  he  has  given  my  brother  John  the 
living  of  Aldingham,  worth  £1100  a  year,  in  a  fine 
country,  and  amidst  a  fine  population.  Was  tliere  ever 
such  prosperity  ?  I  wrote  a  few  lines  of  warm  thanks 
to  Lord  John."  Both  Macaulay  and  Lord  John  Eussell 
wer6  professedly  Christian  if  not  exactly  religious  men, 
and  this  is  tlie  a})proach  they  make  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment ideal  of  the  settlement  of  pastors.  What  a 
transformation !       The    Ecclesia,    the    spiritualities,    the 


GLIMPSES  OF  ORIGINS.  19 

souls  of  the  parishioners,  seem  to  have  vanished  into 
space,  leavmg  as  the  sole  reality  £1100,  to  live  on  in 
a  glorious  country,  which  the  good  Lord  John  takes  out 
of  his  waistcoat  pocket  and  hands  to  his  political  sup- 
porter. Principal  Hill  was  eminently  correct  in  beheving 
that  the  entrance  of  the  mundane  elements,  money  and 
patron's  property,  would  greatly  complicate  the  settle- 
ment of  ministers. 

But  we,  in  closmg  this  chapter,  shall  turn  for  a  few 
moments  to  John  Knox,  or  rather  to  a  distinguished 
personal  friend  of  John  Knox's,  to  wit,  John  Calvin,  who 
— though,  like  every  other  great  man  of  the  Christian 
centuries,  he  illustrated  by  his  spots  the  spotlessness 
of  the  heavenly  Sun,  and,  while  before  his  time  in 
indubitably  remonstrating  against  the  execution  of 
Servetus  by  fire,  was  only  on  a  level  with  his  time,  far 
below  the  level  of  Christ,  in  doing,  as  he  did,  his 
very  best  to  bring  Servetus  to  death — possessed  a  rare 
gift  for  wedding  apostolic  principle  and  precedent 
to  modern  fact.  The  first  and  the  essential  require- 
ment in  a  pastor,  says  Calvin,  is  the  call  of  God.  Of 
this  he  ought  himself  to  be  conscious,  but  it  is  beyond 
the  scrutiny  of  the  Church.  On  this  last  point,  as 
it  is  worth  while  to  observe  in  passing,  Calvin's  views 
liave  been  misrepresented.  "  Calvmists,"  says  Dr.  New- 
man, "  make  a  sharp  separation  between  the  elect  and 
the  world ;  there  is  much  in  this  that  is  cognate  or 
parallel  to  the  Catholic  doctrine ;  Ijut  they  go  on  to  say, 
as  I  understand  them,  very  different  from  Catholicism, 
— that  the  converted  and  the  unconverted  can  be  dis- 
criminated by  man."     Tliis  l)etrays  perfect  ignorance  of 


20  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Calvin  and  of  the  Reformed  Catholic  Church.  Calvin 
says  in  so  many  words  that  God  keeps  the  secret  of 
those  who  are  His  to  Himself.^  One  of  the  distinctly 
blazoned  notes  of  Churches  of  the  Presbyterian  order 
is  that  they  hold  conversion  to  be  a  sacred  mystery, 
a  secret  between  the  individual  breast  and  God,  a 
matter  into  which  no  human  eye  has  a  right  to  peer. 
Accordingly,  Calvm  pronounces  every  Christian  who  has 
not  been  proved  guilty  of  open  wickedness  {aperta 
nequitia)  to  be  ehgible  for  the  office  of  presbyter  or 
bishop. 

How,    in    the    next    place,    was    the    pastor    to    be 
appointed  ?     In  rendering  an  answer,  Calvin   selects   a 
typical  instance  from  the  practice  of  the  apostles.      Paul 
and  Barnabas  ordained  presbyters  in    the    Churches  of 
Lystra,    Iconium,   and    Antioch.       The    general    method 
they  adopted  was  that  followed  in   the  municipal  pro- 
ceedings of  cities,  Greek  and  Eoman,  when  officials  were 
elected.     They  presented  the  bishop  or  presbyter  to  the 
Church,  and  the  whole  congregation  testified  their  accept- 
ance by  uplifted  hands :  tota  multitudo,  ut  mos  Grwcorum 
in  eledionibus  crat,  manibus  siiblatis  dcdarabcd,  qucm  habere 
relict.       The    Apostle   Paul   associated    the   people   witli 
himself  in  the  appointment  of  pastors ;  and  if  he  pie- 
scribed  this  method  to  himself  and  Barnabas,  we  may, 
thinks   Calvin,  be  sure  that  he  would  not  concede  sole, 
autocratic,  or  arbitrary  power  in  the  matter  to  Timothy, 
Titus,  or  any  one  else.     It  is  therefore  according  to  God's 
will  that  fit  men  should  be  appointed  to  charges  "  with 
consent  and  approbation  of  the  people,"  the  election  being 

^  Inslitutio,  Lib.  iv.  cap.  i. 


GLIMPSES  OF  ORIGINS.  21 

presided  over  by  other  pastors,  who  take  care  that 
neither  levity  nor  tumult  nor  anything  unseemly  should 
dishonour  the  occasion,  and  who,  by  laying  their  hands 
on  the  head  of  the  pastor,  perform  the  specific  rite  of 
ordination.  The  imposition  of  hands  is  traced  by  Calvin 
to  the  ancient  Hebrew  form  of  blessing,  and  to  the 
gesture  of  Christ  in  blessing  little  children.  All  reason- 
able and  brotherly,  all  home -like,  heaven -like,  and 
beautiful.^ 

^  Iitstitutio,  Lib.  iv.  cap.  iii. 


CHAPTER  III. 
t^e  ''^iiife  (ging^om." 

"  rriHE  little  kingdom."  This  is  Macaulay's  epithet  for 
-■-  Scotland.  There  is  in  it  perhaps  some  trace  of 
kindliness,  but  more  of  that  cynical  pungency,  not  to  say 
disdain,  for  their  mother  country,  which  Scotchmen  of 
the  second  generation  are  apt  to  acquire  in  England. 
Magnitude  and  minitude,  however,  are  not  safe  criteria 
of  importance  to  apply  to  lands  or  cities.  Attica  occu- 
pied no  great  portion  of  the  globe,  and  Jud?ea  was  a  very 
little  kingdom.  Scotland  has  played  a  part  that  wise 
men  will  not  overlook  in  the  evolution  of  our  most 
modern  civiUsation. 

But  there  is  one  thing  above  all  others  that  makes  it 
difficult  for  Englishmen  to  understand  Scotland,  and  for 
Scotchmen  to  understand  England.  It  is  hardly  too 
much  to  say  that  the  term  "  ecclesiasticism,"  or  rather 
the  thing  for  wdiich  the  word  stands,  is  the  centre  of 
entirely  different  associations  and  suggestions  in  England 
from  what  it  stands  for  in  Scotland.  From  the  days  of 
Wyclift'e's  preachers  at  the  latest, — from  the  day,  we 
might  pretty  confidently  assert,  if  not  earlier  still,  when 


THE  "LITTLE  KINGDOAV  23 

Chaucer  gave  his  astounding  and  now  unmentionable 
account  of  friars, — persons  ecclesiastical  have  been,  to 
use  a  broad  term,  unpopular  in  England,  The  assertion 
holds  good  impressively  of  the  most  popular  and  Kadical 
rehgionists  of  England  to-day,  for  one  of  their  foremost 
representatives,  the  Eev.  Guinness  Rogers,  prefers  to 
associate  "  the  heroic  age "  of  himself  and  those  for 
whom  he  speaks,  with  the  keen,  remonstrant  opposition- 
ism  of  the  Donatists  than  with  the  acquiescence  of  the 
Cathohc  Church.  A  national,  vital,  popular  ecclesi- 
asticism — an  ecclesiasticism  affording  play  to  the  nation's 
brain  and  welhng  straight  from  its  heart — is  an  idea 
that  never  occurs  to  an  Englishman.  But  this  is  what 
has  existed  in  Scotland,  and  given  significance  to  the 
history  of  Scotland.  Buckle  was  an  Englishman,  Carlyle 
was  a  Scot.  Sitting  cross-legged  in  his  study,  and  noting 
that  ecclesiasticism  was  an  extremely  powerful  thing 
both  in  Scotland  and  in  Spain,  Buckle  concluded  without 
hesitation  that  Scotchmen  were,  from  cradle  to  grave,  led 
in  the  hand  by  ecclesiastics,  and  that  paramount  ecclesi- 
asticism had  in  Scotland  the  same  intellectually  paralys- 
ing effects  as  in  Spain.  Carlyle  knew  better.  He 
perceived  that  the  ecclesiasticism  of  Scotland  had  been 
a  quickening  leaven,  a  stimulating  life,  not  a  paralysing 
virus.  "  Scotch  literature  and  thought,"  said  Carlyle, 
"  Scotch  industry,  James  Watt,  David  Hume,  Walter 
Scott,  Eobert  Burns :  I  find  Knox  and  the  Preformation 
acting  in  the  heart's  core  of  every  one  of  these  persons 
and  phenomena."  These  words  of  Carlyle  may  be  said 
to  solve  the  riddle  of  Scotch  history.  "  It  did  not  strike 
Buckle,"  says  another  writer,  "  that  mummy-wheat  might 


24  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

be  very  good  wheat,  —  that  a  nation  might  develop 
healthfully  and  strenuously,  although  the  forms  in  which 
it  developed  were,  to  a  great  extent,  ecclesiastical." 
It  was  in  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
which  may  in  so  much  be  figured  to  the  imagina- 
tion as  the  watershed  of  modern  history,  tliat  the 
ecclesiastics  of  Scotland  became  somewhat  suddenly 
transformed  into  tribunes  of  the  people,  and  contributed 
a  great  deal  to  start  that  river  of  political  and  general 
progress  which  has  continued  to  flow  in  Scotland  until 
this  day. 

If  there  is  one  word  which  has  for  Englislnnen  a 
sound  as  consonant  to  liberty — as  suggestive  of  all  that 
is  popular  —  as  ecclesiasticism  is  the  reverse,  it  is  the 
w^ord  "  Parliament."  In  English  history  Parliament  and 
Church  may  be  looked  upon  as,  on  the  whole,  conflict- 
ing powers.  And  the  Parliament  has,  for  the  immense 
majority  of  EngHshmen,  been  the  more  trusted  of  the 
two.  But  the  old  Scottish  Parliament  was  autocratic, 
and  had  little  connection  with  the  body  of  the  people. 
And  Buckle  seems  to  have  had  no  idea — nor  does  it 
appear  to  have  struck  Carlyle,  whose  own  idiosyncrasy 
made  him  Ijlind  to  that  side  of  the  matter — that  one, 
and  a  chief  reason  why  the  ecclesiasticism  of  Scotland 
was  popular  and  vitalising,  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  Church 
furnished  Scotland  with  what  was,  to  all  intents  and 
purposes,  a  Parliament,  and  practically  a  most  effective 
Parliament.  How  true  is  that  remark  of  Disraeli's, 
occurring  in  the  bright  novel  of  his  early  manhood  which 
captivated  Goethe,  "  With  words  we  govern  men."  Call 
a  Parliament  a  "  General  Assembly,"  and  the  cleverest 


THE  ''LITTLE  KINGDOM."  25 

Buckle,  if  a   bit  of   a  pedant,  fails    to   detect   what   it 
really  is. 

In  the  course  of  that  curious  and  complicated  his- 
torical drama  which  worked  itself  out  in  Scotland  in  the 
latter  end  of  the  sixteenth  and  the  early  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church 
gradually  arose  and  grew  into  strength  in  Scotland,  and 
became,  not  in  name  but  in  fact,  a  Parliament  of  the 
people.  The  people  loved  it  for  the  simple  reason 
that  it  was  their  own.  Every  darling  of  the  nation, 
be  he  peer,  be  he  peasant,  could  find  his  way  into  it. 
It  became  the  representative  body  of  a  spiritual  democ- 
racy, a  republic  none  the  less  real  that  it  was  formally 
ecclesiastical.  The  Scottish  farmer  and  cottager  might 
there  sit  side  by  side  with  the  foremost  divines,  and 
with  a  sprinkling  of  the  ablest  noblemen  and  the 
most  acute  and  experienced  lawyers  of  Scotland.  From 
the  first  it  was  popular,  and  at  every  critical  junc- 
ture in  the  subsequent  history  of  the  nation  the  feelings 
and  opinions  of  the  great  body  of  the  Scottish  people 
could  be  better  ascertained  by  consulting  the  General 
Assembly  than  by  consulting  Parliament.  It  was,  in 
fact,  a  Parliament  whose  edicts  had  only  an  indirect 
political  significance,  but  which  sent  its  roots  into  every 
parish  in  Scotland,  and  touched  all  the  most  personal 
concerns  of  the  population,  moral,  social,  and  domestic. 
It  was  by  a  highly  remarkable  series  of  coincidences 
that  the  Church  of  Scotland  came  into  a  position 
to  play  the  memorable  part  in  virtue  of  which,  at 
one  and  the  same  time,  she  secured  her  own  spiritual 
independence,     and     contributed,    in     a     degree     which 


26  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

it  is  hardly  possible  to  over-estunate,  to  train  the 
people  of  Scotland  in  habits  of  civil  and  pohtical 
freedom. 

The  most  cursory  glance  into  the  history  of  Scotland 
discloses  that,  though  under  ordinary  circumstances  one 
marked  attribute  of  the  people  is  gravity,  yet,  at  intervals 
at  least,  they  are  capable  of  intense  paroxysms  of  enthusi- 
asm. Such  was  that  which,  on  the  occasion  before  us, 
originated  in  the  preaching  of  a  few  earnest  men,  the 
deaths  of  a  few  martyrs,  and  most  of  all  the  eager 
drhiking  of  undiluted  Christianity  from  the  wells,  pre- 
viously forbidden,  of  the  New  Testament.  Like  the 
fabric  of  a  vision,  the  old  Roman  Catholic  Kirk  of  Scot- 
land vanished,  and  in  its  place  we  behold  the  Congrega- 
tion. The  clergy  and  the  people  outran  their  rulers,  and 
instead  of  waiting  for  a  constitution  from  the  Civil  Power, 
framed,  in  its  essentials,  the  Constitution  of  the  Church, 
according  to  the  principles  of  Christ  applied  to  the  pro- 
vidential conditions  of  the  time.  The  ardent  "  other 
worldHness  " — the  pure  spiritual  passion — of  the  body  of 
Reformers  really  facilitated  the  operations  of  the  aristo- 
cracy in  robbing  the  Church.  Proudly  bold  in  asserting 
their  sole  spiritual  allegiance  to  Christ,  the  preachers 
made  no  desperate  clutch  at  the  ample  endowments  of 
the  old  Church,  and  presented  no  effectual  resistance  to 
the  dismantling  of  those  baronial  bishoprics,  which,  what- 
ever pretences  and  veneers  might  be  made  use  of,  did 
really  introduce  an  alien  influence  and  element  into  that 
equality  of  tlie  Christian  brotherhood  which  had  been 
laid  down  as  a  principle  by  Christ.  Poor  as  were  the 
preachers  in  worldly  goods,  their  power  began  to  be  felt 


THE  ''LITTLE  KINGDOM."  27 

SO  soon  as  they  made  it  practically  known  how  they 
interpreted  the  liberty  which  they  claimed  for  the 
Church,  the  visible  Congregation,  in  Christ's  name.  They 
demanded  freedom  for  the  pulpit,  and  they  exercised 
that  freedom  in  rebuking  King  James  and  his  nobles. 
For  words  spoken  in  the  pulpit, — spoken  in  capacity  of 
minister  of  Christ,  whether  in  pulpit,  Presbytery,  or 
General  Assembly, — every  Scottish  pastor  refused  to  give 
account  to  king,  council,  or  any  court  of  civil  or  criminal 
justice,  until  he  had  been  first  tried  by  the  Church. 

Who  can   fail   to  understand   that,  under   these  cir- 
cimistances,   an   immense   force  of  a   popular   nature — 
an  epoch-making  organ  of  public  opinion — w^ould  spring 
into  existence  ?     Scotland  was  then,  from  circumstances 
that  have  been  alluded  to,  drawn  more  prominently  than 
ever  before  or  since  into  the  evolution  of  world-history. 
All  the  parties  that  were  leading  on  the  stage  of  Western 
Europe   had   their   representatives    among    the   Scottish 
hills.      There  the  Guises  held  the  threads  of  intrigue  in 
the  interests  of  France.      There  the  dark  genius  of  Spain 
plotted  and  devised  and  laid  the  train  of   its  conspir- 
acies.    A    strong  and  influential  party  took  their  clue 
from  England,  a  party  in  close  connection  with  Queen 
Elizabeth.     And  there  was  a  plurahty  of  Scottish  parties, 
each  witli  a  nuance  of  its  own,— the  party  of  the  king,  the 
party  of  the  nation,  the  party  of  the  aristocracy,  the 
party  of  the  Church.     All  these  might  be  said  to  be  in 
some  sense  the  party  of  the  General  Assembly. 

James  was  no  perfect  king,  though  very  far  indeed 
from  the  preposterous  caricature  of  Macaulay.  Casaubon, 
as   we  may  learn   from   Pattison's   masterly   biography, 


28  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

passed  over  from  the  court  of  Henry  IV.,  in  France,  to 
that  of  James,  in  England,  to  bear  witness  that  he,  the 
finest  Greek  scholar  in  Europe,  had  passed  from  a  mon- 
arch who  was  an  illiterate  barbarian  to  one  who  was  a 
friendly  and  gentlemanly  scholar.  But  James  was  none 
the  less  likely  fur  his  scholarship  to  be  irritated,  at 
the  time  preceding  his  accession  to  the  English  throne, 
by  the  liberty  with  which,  as  he  said,  every  Dick, 
Tom,  and  Harry  criticised  his  affairs  in  the  pulpit. 
Ministers  of  a  republican  Church,  the  preachers  were 
likely  to  be  somewhat  bold  in  their  strictures  upon 
monarchy,  and  we  need  not  be  much  surprised  that 
James  should  have  suspected  a  flavour  of  treason  in  the 
Eev.  Mr.  Black's  assertion  from  the  pulpit  that  "  kings 
were  devils'  bairns."  In  point  of  fact,  however,  these 
assertors  of  the  liberty  of  the  pulpit  in  the  sixteenth 
century  were  the  pioneers  of  Milton  in  demanding  the 
liberty  of  the  press  in  the  seventeenth,  and  of  the 
editors  and  telegraphists  of  our  own  time.  Neither  the 
liberty  of  the  pulpit  nor  the  liberty  of  the  press  has 
been  exercised  in  all  instances  without  abuse.  And  it 
is  well  to  remember  that,  allowing  for  occasional  ex- 
travagances, the  pulpit  criticism  which  sometunes  charmed 
and  sometimes  infuriated  James  was  in  the  main  sound 
and  seasonable.  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  best  judge  then 
living,  was  on  the  side  of  the  preachers,  and  against  the 
voluble  and  veering  king.  Queen  Ehzabeth  knew  that 
it  was  not  possible  to  be  on  both  sides  in  the  quarrel 
between  papal  and  Protestant  Christendom.  The  re- 
pelling of  the  Armada  was  a  practical  business ;  the 
resistance  of  Spain  involved   decisive  measures   against 


THE  "LITTLE  KINGDOM:'  29 

those  Popish  lords  and  their  followers  who  might  make 
things  inviting  for  a  landing  by  the  Spaniard  in  Scot- 
land. James,  like  his  son,  lacked  backbone ;  and 
Elizabeth,  as  well  as  the  Scottish  preachers,  knew  the 
fact.  Literally,  however,  and  to  very  serious  purpose, 
the  Presbyterians  and  their  General  Assembly  formed, 
in  those  days,  part  of  the  garrison  of  the  island  against 
the  Armada,  and  furnished  for  Scotland  no  ineffective 
substitutes,  both  for  a  free  press  and  a  popular  Parlia- 
ment. We  may  now  begin  to  appreciate  the  reasons 
why  the  Church  has  been  more  of  a  people's  institution 
in  Scotland  than  in  England. 

Another  of  those  reasons  was  that  the  fervour  of  the 
Reformation  had  burnt,  one  might  say,  out  of  the  mind  and 
memory  of  the  people  of  Scotland  the  old  Romish  con- 
ception of  the  Church  as  constituted  by  tlie  clergy.  An 
Englishman  would  as  soon  think  of  Parliament  as  super- 
seding or  extinguishing  the  nation, — putting  itself  for 
the  nation, — as  a  Scotchman  would  of  the  clerical  class 
styling  itself  a  priesthood,  and  superseding  the  people. 
In  Scotland,  from  the  days  of  Knox,  a  Church, 
republican  in  form,  combining  congregational  complete- 
ness and  parochial  autonomy  with  synodical  order,  in 
which  all  mendjers,  lay  and  clerical,  are  spiritually  equal, 
and  the  clergy  are  but  the  ministering  servants  of  the 
flock,  has  been  the  object  of  trust  and  affection.  Seces- 
sions have  taken  place  because  the  Church  has  not 
seemed  to  be  true  enough  to  her  own  original  ideal. 
In  proportion  to  the  fervency  of  faitli  and  of  re- 
ligious enthusiasm  among  the  people  of  Scotland,  lias 
been,   at    any   particular    period,   the    warmth    of    their 


30  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

devotion  to  the  Church,  and  their  zeal  for  her  spiritual 
independence. 

It  has  greatly  contributed   to  intensify  and   idealise 
the   affection  of  the   Scottish  people  for   their   Church, 
that  the  humiliation  of  the  Church  has  always  gone  imri 
passit  with  the  wounding  of  the  national  feeling,  and  that 
the  Presbyterian  clergy  have  always  proved  themselves 
true  interpreters  of  the  patriotic  sentiment  of  the  people. 
We  have  seen  that  the  preachers  of  Scotland,  in  Eliza- 
beth's time,  supported  the  sturdy  Protestantism  of  that 
straight  -  hitting   Deborah    against    their   own   wavering 
Solomon.      In  this  the  body  of  the  people  went  heartily 
along  with  the  preachers.       When  James  mounted  the 
throne  of  England,  he  departed  more  and  more  widely  from 
the  robust  and  simple  policy  of  Elizabeth,  and  both  he  and 
his  son  Charles  bestirred  themselves  to  break  the  proud 
neck  of  the  Scottish  Church.      But  the  nation,  strange 
as  it   may  seem,  appears  to   have   been   actually  made 
more   sensitively  jealous   of    its   political    independence 
from  having  furnished  England  with  a  sovereign,  and  to 
have  for   this  as  well   as  for  higher  causes,  responded 
with  extraordinary  enthusiasm  to  the  Church's  efforts  to 
maintain  her  independence  in  spiritual  matters.      Crom- 
well trampled  down  both  Church  and  State  in  Scotland, 
as   he   had  previously  done  in  England,  thus  inflicting 
a  Ijitter  sense  of  humiliation  upon  the  Scottish  people. 
lie  expressed,  in  the  most  emphatic  manner  at  his  com- 
mand, the  estimate  he  had  formed  of  the  importance  of 
the    General  Assembly  as  an  organ  and  focus  of   the 
national  feeling  by  forcibly  dissolving  it.     He  was  care- 
ful, however,  to   avoid   touching  the   spiritual   Liberties 


THE  ''LITTLE  KINGDOM:'  31 

of  Presbyteries  and  congregations,  contenting  himself, 
when  a  pastor  proved  refractory,  with  sweeping  away  the 
temporahties  of  the  parish.  The  Governments  of  Charles 
II.,  which  restored  Episcopacy,  and  James  II.,  which 
plotted  to  restore  Popery,  were  largely  obnoxious  to  the 
patriotic  sentiment  as  well  as  to  the  rehgious  convictions 
of  Scotchmen.  The  Presbyterian  Church  and  the  body 
of  the  people  had  thus  been  knit  together  in  all  changes 
of  government,  and  the  final  establishment  of  Presby- 
terianism  at  the  revolution  of  1688  was  a  triumph  for 
the  nation  as  well  as  for  the  Church.  Burns,  a  good 
judge,  names  the  Covenanters  as  serving  freedom's  cause. 
He  must  be  deaf  indeed  to  the  intimations,  blind  to  the 
symbolic  blazons  of  history,  who  does  not  perceive  that 
the  Church  of  Scotland  has  been  pledged  by  her  whole 
career  to  maintain  her  spiritual  independence, — an  inde- 
pendence including  the  right  to  proclaim  Christ's  truth 
to  kings,  to  guard  the  privileges  of  the  members  of  the 
Church  in  the  formation  of  the  pastoral  tie,  and  to 
exercise  disciplhie  withm  her  borders. 

At  the  Union  between  England  and  Scotland,  special 
care  was  taken  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland 
shovdd  retain  her  spiritual  independence,  and  should  not 
be  subjected  to  the  supremacy  exercised  by  the  Crown 
over  the  Episcopahan  Church  of  England.  A  few  years 
subsequently,  through  the  machinations  of  the  political 
party  that  was  bent  upon  reiiisUiting  the  Stuarts,  an 
Act  was  passed  in  the  British  Parliament  by  which  it 
became  possible  for  Presbyteries,  if  they  so  desired, 
to  neutralise  or  evade,  in  the  interest  of  patrons  to 
livings,  the  call  by  which  congregations  signified  their 


32  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

assent  to  the  settlement  of  ministers  among  them.  It 
was  felt  at  the  time  that  this  Act,  commonly  known  as 
Queen  Anne's,  practically  estabUshing  patronage,  was 
intensely  at  variance  with  that  spirit  of  Christian 
democracy  which  had  always  characterised  the  Church 
of  Scotland.  But  the  great  rehgious  excitement,  which 
for  two  centuries  had  been  the  main  factor  of  history  in 
Western  Europe,  had  now  been  succeeded  by  comparative 
quiescence,  nay,  even  by  tlie  beginnings  of  reaction.  The 
eighteenth  century  brought  with  it  indifference  and 
scepticism  in  rehgious  matters.  The  full-flooded  rivers 
of  controversy  that,  from  the  days  of  Luther  to  the  days 
of  Sancroft,  had  rolled  impetuously  along,  had  now 
dwindled  down  to  laggard  streamlets,  gradually  losing 
themselves  in  sand. 

It  was  natural,  in  these  circumstances,  that  the  party 
of  intrepid  and  uncompromising  Presbyters  who,  from  the 
days  of  Knox,  had  taken  the  lead  in  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, should  find  themselves  superseded  by  a  less  fervid, 
more  accommodating,  less  democratic,  and  less  inde- 
pendent set  of  leaders,  whom  the  fiery  progeny  of  the 
Covenanters  named  Moderates.  It  is  unwise  to  sneer 
vaguely  at  the  eighteenth  century,  or  at  these  Moderate 
divines,  who  formed  one  of  its  most  characteristic  products. 
The  life  of  man — the  life  of  the  race — cannot  be  all 
excitement,  all  enthusiasm.  Periods  must  intervene 
when  activity  is  partially  suspended  ;  periods  when  human 
nature  has  recourse  to  the  sweet  restorer,  sleep  ;  autumnal 
and  wintry  periods,  when  the  mind  lies  fallow  in  prepara- 
tion for  new  springs  of  (quickened  consciousness  and 
keen  spiritual  aspiration.      The  eighteenth  century  was 


THE  ''LITTLE  KINGDOM:'  33 

one  of  those  fallow  periods.  The  Eefonnation  century, 
the  Puritan  century,  had  l)een  times  of  spiritual  revolution. 
They  were  follow^ed  by  a  century  of  rest.  Moderatisni 
was  one  of  many  symptoms  of  a  spiritualh^  languid  age. 
It  was  not  a  dead  age.  Far  from  that.  It  produced 
Butler  and  Keid.  It  produced  Hume  and  Kant.  But 
it  was,  comparatively  speaking,  cold,  and  its  coldness 
was  felt  mostly  in  regions  where  one  naturally  looks 
for  heat,  as  in  the  religious  province. 

The  representative  figure  of  Moderatisni,  as  a  party  in 
the  Church  of  Scotland  during  the  eighteenth  century, 
was  Eobertson.  A  memorable  man ;  not  of  the  highest 
order,  either  intellectually  or  morally,  but  of  a  high 
order.  To  him,  as  to  the  greater  and  nobler  Scott, 
Carlyle  did  injustice ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  melancholy 
facts  of  life,  that  no  lesson  is  more  readily  learnt  by  a 
new  generation  from  its  fashionable  teachers  than  to 
sneer  at  the  teachers  who  preceded  them.  But  the 
Scottish  preacher  who  promptly  achieved  a  European 
reputation  as  an  historian,  whose  works  were  among 
the  treasured  literature  of  Voltaire  at  Ferney,  and  were 
referred  to  with  reverent  admiration  by  (libbon,  was 
no  ordinary  man.  Robertson's  Charles  the  Fifth  is  a 
masterpiece  of  broad  historical  delineation,  showing  all 
the  prondnent  figures  as  they  moved  in  successive  groups 
in  the  pageant  and  procession  of  the  greatest  of  modern 
centuries.  In  breadth,  in  the  arrangement  of  masses  of 
light  and  shade,  in  the  discernment  of  cardinal  facts, 
- — qualities  which  after  all  may  be  more  informing  than 
the  mastery  of  picturesque  detail  by  more  popular 
historians, — it  would  be  difficult  to  name  a  superior  to 
3 


34  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Eobertson.  It  is  time  for  intelligent  Scotchmen  of  all 
parties  to  do  justice  to  this  illustrious  man,  and  to 
acknowledge  that  his  career  and  reputation  go  far  to 
prove  that  moderation,  even  in  the  Moderate  party,  had 
not  quite  ceased  to  be  the  reconciling,  ennobling,  refinmg, 
and  exalting  virtue  that  all  philosophic  schools,  and  con- 
spicuously the  New  Testament,  unite  in  pronouncing  it. 
The  serene  intellectual  poise  of  Eobertson,  in  the  century 
after  that  of  the  Puritan  battles,  and  when  toleration  was 
still  practically  regarded  by  many  devout  persons  as  a  sin, 
can  hardly  be  over-praised.  He  did  justice  to  Cardinal 
Ximenes.  He  did  justice  to  Martin  Luther.  As  a  master 
of  grouping  and  of  historical  perspective,  neither  Froude 
nor  Macaulay  can  stand  comparison  with  him,  and  beside 
him  Eanke  is  but  a  rambling  annalist. 

But  Eobertson  was  an  historian  first,  a  Presbyterian 
Churchman  second ;  and  though  it  were  unpardonable  to 
doubt  the  sincerity  of  his  personal  religion,  he  was 
courtly,  rationahstic,  and  absolutely  out  of  touch  with 
that  fervent  enthusiasm  and  that  burning  zeal  which 
had  always  been  notes  of  the  religion  of  his  countrymen. 
His  religion  was  a  philosophy,  an  ethical  theory,  at  best 
ft  law,  rather  than  burning  entliusiasm  of  devotion  to  a 
Master,  and  awestruck  adoration  of  a  God.  And  profoundly 
mysterious,  immeasurably  suggestive  as  is  the  fact,  it  is 
iudulntable  that,  when  philosophy  essays  to  supersede 
and  to  play  the  part  of  religion,  learning  to  look  down 
with  disdain  upon  religious  persons,  upon  the  common 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  it  fails  to  touch  tlie  liearts 
of  nations,  or  to  realise  the  effects  produced  by  vital 
religion.       In    proportion   as    the    spirit    of    philosophic 


THE  ''LITTLE  KINGDOM:'  35 

moralising,  giving  a  polite  go-by  to  all  the  mysteries 
of  the  inner  life  and  the  celestial  outlook,  gained  the 
ascendant  in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  like  proportion 
did  the  people  become  dissatisfied  with  her  ministrations, 
congregation  after  congregation,  sometimes  in  single 
instances,  sometimes  in  groups  of  two,  or  three,  or  five, 
receding  from  her  communion,  and  coming  gradually 
together  again,  not  to  set  up  a  new  form  of  creed  or 
constitution,  but  to  realise  for  themselves  a  Presbyterian 
Church  more  loyal,  as  they  believed,  to  the  original  ideal, 
as  portrayed  in  the  New  Testament  and  restored  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  With  these  seceders 
a  party  in  the  Established  Church  continued  to  cherish 
the  warmest  sympathy ;  but  they  considered  it  their  own 
duty  to  maintain  the  conflict  with  the  Moderates  within 
the  Church,  standing  by  the  fundamental  principles  of 
her  Constitution,  and,  like  the  EepubHcan  party  of 
America  in  its  long  struggle  with  the  slaveholders 
antecedent  to  the  great  Civil  War,  looking  forward  to 
the  day  when  they,  rising  into  the  ascendant,  miglit 
cause  the  face  of  the  Church  again  to  shine  as  in  the 
glories  of  her  dawn.  This  party  was  nicknamed  by  its 
opponents  The  Highflyers,  and  adopted  as  its  own  badge 
the  term  Evangelical.  Mr.  Taylor  Innes,  in  his  learned 
work  on  Creeds  in  Scotland,  gives  it  the  appropriate 
luime  of  the  High  Presbyterian  party. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
t^e  (Btjangeficaf  (Reuttjaf— '*  damson's  (Wlen.' 

IN  the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  the  Evan- 
gelical Eevival  was  still  among  those  things  which 
had  on  them  the  dew  and  the  promise  of  dawn, — the 
dew  to  symbolise  the  tears  for  the  failures  of  the  night 
and  its  distresses,  the  hght  to  symbolise  the  hope  of 
future  achievement  and  of  promised  reward.  It  had 
begun  in  England,  in  the  Estabhshed  Church,  in  those 
University  rooms  and  halls  where  the  Wesleys  and 
Whitfield  brought  with  them  airs  from  the  heaven  of 
Christian  homes.  But  it  quickly  caught  on  among  the 
people,  and  the  (Jhurch  of  the  l)aronial  bishops  soon 
proved  too  narrow  to  hold  it,  although  it  found  response 
in  many  a  simple,  childlike,  honest  soul,  many  a  Grim- 
shaw,  Eomaine,  Toplady,  within  the  Anglican  pale.  Once 
more  it  turned  out  that  the  broad  stratum  of  the  English 
population  was  i)r()ne  to  religion  ;  and  once  more,  as  in 
the  days  of  Wycliffe,  and  in  the  days  of  Cranmer,  and  in 
the  days  of  Bunyan,  it  held  good  that  the  religion  taken 
to  its  heart  by  the  great  body  of  the  English  people  was 
the  religion,  not  of  piiests,  nor  of  philosophers,  nor  of 


THE  EVANGELICAL  KEVLVAL '' TAMSOISrS  MEN."      37 

professors,   but   the    religion   boldly  inscribed,  and    dis- 
cernible at  the  first  honest  glance,  upon  the  Bible. 

In  our  own  day  we  have  been  impressively  told  by 
Matthew  Arnold,  how  much  nobler  the  simple  Bible  is 
than  the  Bible  commented  on,  the  Bil)le  touched  up,  or 
watered  down,  by  the  typical  German  professor.  In 
"the  Protestant  faculties  of  theology"  in  Germany,  "  a 
body  of  specialists,"  says  Matthew  Arnold,  "  is  at  work, 
who  take  as  the  business  of  their  lives  a  class  of 
inquiries  like  the  question  about  the  Canon  of  the 
Gospels.  They  are  eternally  reading  its  literature, 
reading  the  theories  of  their  colleagues  about  it ;  their 
personal  reputation  is  made  by  emitting,  on  the  much- 
canvassed  subject,  a  new  theory  of  their  own.  The 
want  of  variety  and  of  balance  in  their  life  and  occupa- 
tions, impairs  the  balance  of  their  judgment  in  general." 
"  If  you  choose  to  obey  your  Bibles,"  says  Mr.  Euskin 
with  happy  shrewdness,  "  you  will  never  care  who 
attacks  them."  Specialism  has  its  uses.  "  Of  Biblical 
learning,"  Arnold  justly  adds,  "  we  have  not  enough." 
But  it  is  not  criticism  that  reveals  to  us  the  glow  and 
grandeur  of  the  Homeric  poems,  or  opens  our  ear  to 
the  glorious  and  wonderful  hum  in  them  of  the  glad 
fightings  and  busy  industries  of  the  early  world.  It  is 
not  criticism  that  lays  bare  to  us  the  true  mystery  and 
magic  of  Hamlet.  And  it  is,  to  quote  again  from 
Matthew  Arnold,  "  a  truth  never  to  be  lost  sight  of,  that 
in  the  domain  of  religion,  as  in  the  domain  of  poetry, 
the  whole  apparatus  of  learning  is  but  secondary,  and 
that  we  always  go  wrong  with  our  learning  when  we 
suffer  ourselves  to  forget  this." 


38  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

We  should  convey  a  misleading  impression  if  we  said 
that  Matthew  Arnold  entertained  the  same  idea  of  the 
Bible  as  has  been  entertained,  first  and  last,  by  the  great 
Bible  party  of  England  and  Scotland.  But  the  Evan- 
gelicals, whatever  else  they  held,  have  seen  in  the  Bible 
a  revelation  of  the  God  of  righteousness ;  and  Matthew 
Arnold  gives  his  weighty  opinion  that,  "  reading  the  Bible 
with  this  idea  to  govern  us,  we  have  here  the  elements 
for  a  rehgion  more  serious,  potent,  awe  -  inspiring,  and 
profound,  than  any  whicli  the  world  has  yet  seen."  ^ 
The  work  that  has  been  done  by  the  Evangelical  party, 
both  in  its  beautiful  and  melodious  dawn  under  the 
Wesleys  and  Toplady, — ^for  in  both  of  these,  spite 
of  their  cobweb  differences  of  dogma,  there  was  the 
note  of  a  true  inspiration  of  sacred  song, — and  in  its 
more  recent  manifestations,  attests  the  truth  of  these 
words. 

The  Evangelical  party  had  never  died  out  in  Scotland, 
and  when  the  wave  of  the  new  gospel  tide  came  flowing 
into  the  inlets  of  the  Scottish  coast,  it  met  with  no 
organised  obstruction.  The  old  mills,  shall  we  say, — 
venturing  on  an  audaciously  modern  figure, — proved  to 
be  workable  by  the  new  electricity.  Wilberforce,  whose 
slave-trade  reputation  was  preceded  by  his  Evangelical 
fame,  recognised  in  the  minority  of  the  General 
Assembly  his  true  brethren  in  religious  sentiments,  and 
avow^ed  himself  piously  scandalised  to  behold  Eobertson, 
a  leader  in  the  Church,  standing  on  terms  of  amicable 
relation  with  Gibbon.  We  shall  hope  that  it  is  no 
treason  to  the  later  developments  of  Evangelicalism  to 

^  God  and  the  Bible. 


\ 


THE  EVANGELICAL  REVIVAL "  TAMSON'S  MEN:'      39 

be  less  severe  upon  Robertson  for  being  so  audaciously 
tolerant. 

It  was,  however,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  in  its  first 
quarter,  so  full  of  all  kinds  of  thrilling  excitement,  in 
war,  in  politics,  in  poetry,  that  the  Evangelical  party  in 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  now  thoroughly  awake,  began  to 
come  decisively  to  the  front.  In  the  brilliant  Edinburgh 
of  those  years,  the  Edinburgh  which  still  attracted  to  its 
University  such  future  statesmen  as  Pahnerston  and 
Lord  John  Russell,  the  Edinburgh  of  Scott,  of  Wilson,  of 
Jeffrey,  of  young  Carlyle,  the  Evangelicals  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  began  to  play  a  part  of  more  importance,  a 
part  more  keenly  influencing  and  agitating  the  Scottish 
people,  than  they  had  enacted  for  upwards  of  a  hundred 
years. 

They  were  led  by  a  man  whose  name  rejpresents 
more  perliaps  than  any  other,  to  all  who  are  really 
acquainted  with  the  history  of  Scotland  during  those 
years,  the  beginnings  of  Evangelical  ascendancy  in  the 
Church  after  the  long  reign  of  Moderatism.  Andrew 
Thomson's  hfe  has  not  been  written,  but  his  name  and 
memory  are  indelibly  inscribed  on  the  mind  of  his 
countrymen.  He  was  exactly  the  man  to  take  away 
the  reproach  from  what  had  been  called  the  narrow,  the 
pietistic,  the  fanatical  party.  As  minister  of  St.  George's, 
the  principal  charge  in  Edinburgh,  he  preached  clear, 
well-reasoned,  tersely-written  discourses,  strongly  Evan- 
gelical, which  might  fail  to  convince  every  one,  but  could 
be  despised  by  none.  In  society,  assisted  by  a  fine 
person,  a  voice  remarkable  for  compass  and  harmony,  a 
quick  and  vigorous  intellect,  a  social  talent  aided  by  a 


40       THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

skill  in  music,  and  a  manner  in  which  dignity  was 
combined  with  animation,  he  carried  everything  before 
liim.  But  the  sphere  in  which  he  shone  to  most  advan- 
tage was  the  General  Assemlily,  where  he  faced  the 
lordly  Moderates,  and  gathered  and  formed  into  an 
invincible  phalanx  the  scattered  remnant  of  the  old 
Presbyterian  following.  He  was  an  acknowledged  prince 
among  deljaters.  Brougham,  the  greatest  Parliamentary 
orator  of  his  time,  had  said  that  there  lived  Ijut  one  man 
whom  he  feared  to  meet  in  debate,  and  he  was  Andrew 
Thomson. 

He  had  caught  the  mantle  of  the  Erskines  and  Mon- 
creiffs,  and  recalled  the  "  watchwords  of  primitive  order 
and  popular  rights."  Wherever  a  congregation  found 
itself  in  danger  of  having  a  minister  forced  upon  it  by 
a  worldly  patron  and  the  Moderate  majority,  Andrew 
Thomson  "  lifted  up  his  intrepid  voice  "  and  pleaded  its 
cause.  Intimately  associated,  both  in  personal  friend- 
ship and  ecclesiastical  sympathy,  with  Dr.  Thomas  M'Crie, 
the  biographer  of  Knox  and  Melville,  and  the  greatest 
living  authority  upon  the  Church  of  Scotland,  he  took 
«lelight  in  appealing  to  the  heroic  age  of  Presbytery,  and 
made  conscience  of  keeping  always  unfurled  the  banner  of 
the  Church's  contention  for  the  Crown  Eights  of  her  Lord. 
He  was  the  type  of  a  successful  party  leader,  glowing 
with  an  ardour  that  attracted  the  young  men,  ever 
willing  to  marshal  his  squadrons  for  the  charge.  Presby- 
terian Scotland,  from  hundreds  of  manses  and  thousands 
of  cottages,  watched  the  course  of  Thomson  and  the 
progress  of  the  now  party  with  ecstasies  of  approbation. 
Sir  George  Sinclair  told  the  present  writer  that  once,  in 


THE  EVANGELICAL  REVIVAL ''TAMSON'S  MEN."     41 

the  south  of  Scotland,  in  those  times,  he  entered  into 
conversation  with  a  fellow-traveller  in  a  coach,  and  got 
upon  the  subject  of  the  Church  and  the  Assembly  and 
the  prominent  ministers.  For  his  companion  Andrew 
Thomson,  or,  as  he  called  him,  "  Tamson,"  was  all  the 
law  and  all  the  prophets.  If  Sir  George  mentioned 
any  minister  who  was  not  in  Thomson's  brigade,  he  was 
not  thought  worth  speaking  of.  But  if  Sir  CJeorge  was 
happy  enough  to  know  and  name  one  of  the  other 
kind,  then  his  companion  brightened  up  in  a  moment, 
and  he  said,  with  Hashing  eyes,  "  Aye,  he's  ane  o' 
Tamson's  men  ! " 


CHAPTER  V. 
^^omeon  in  a  CdavaciexiBiic  (^ffitu^e. 

X)UT  we  cannot  do  better,  with  a  view  to  understand- 
-'-^  ing  the  situation,  than  glance  into  the  Assembly  of 
1820,  and  observe  what  was  going  forward.  The  old  king 
had  died  in  January  of  that  year,  and  his  son,  George  the 
Fourth,  had  succeeded  him.  In  February  an  Order  was 
issued  by  the  Privy  Council,  and  was  transmitted  in  due 
form  to  the  Assembly  at  its  meeting  in  May,  on  the 
subject  of  prayers  for  the  Eoyal  Family  "  in  that  part 
of  Great  Britain  called  Scotland."  After  citation  of 
one  or  two  Acts  of  Parliament,  "  it  is  ordered,"  proceeds 
the  document,  "  by  His  Majesty  in  Council,  that  hence- 
forth every  minister  and  preacher  shall,  in  his  respective 
church,  congregation,  or  Assembly,  pray  '  For  his  most 
sacred  Majesty  King  George,  and  all  the  Eoyal  Family ; ' 
of  which  all  persons  concerned  are  hereby  required  to 
take  notice  and  govern  themselves  accordingly." 

To  this  Andrew  Thomson  demurred.  The  spiritual 
independence  of  the  Church  was  imperilled.  No  power 
on  earth,  he  affirmed,  was  entitled  to  dictate  the  terms 
in  which  she  was   to  pray  to  God.       Thomson  moved  as 

42 


THOMSON  IN  A  CHARACTERISTIC  ATTITUDE.       43 

follows :  "  That  it  be  declared  by  the  General  Assembly 
that  no  civil  authority  can  constitutionally  prescribe 
either  forms  or  heads  of  prayer  to  the  ministers  or 
preachers  of  this  Church,  and  that  the  Orders  in  Council 
which  have  been  issued  from  time  to  time  respecting 
prayers  for  the  Eoyal  Family  are  inconsistent  with  the 
rights  and  privileges  secured  by  law  to  our  ecclesiastical 
Estabhshment ;  but  that,  as  these  Orders  appear  to  have 
originated  in  mistake  or  inadvertency,  and  not  in  any 
intention  to  interfere  with  our  modes  of  worship,  the 
General  Assembly  do  not  consider  it  to  be  necessary  to 
proceed  further  in  this  matter  at  present."  A  conven- 
tional expression  of  loyalty  followed,  and  a  profession 
of  entire  willingness  to  address  supplications  to  God  in 
behalf  of  a  Eoyal  House  by  which  He  had  shed  bless- 
ings on  the  nation ;  but  the  distinct  assertion  of  the 
spiritual  independence  of  the  Church  came  first. 

In  his  opening  speech  Thomson  laid  stress  upon  the 
"  incontrovertible  principle  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
that  it  had  no  spiritual  head  on  earth,  and  that  conse- 
quently the  King  in  Council  had  no  right  to  interfere  in 
its  worship."  As  for  the  Acts  of  Parliament  on  which 
the  Order  was  rested,  he  argued  either  that  they  were 
irrelevant,  or  that  they  had  always  been  repudiated,  in 
their  spirit  and  purpose,  by  the  truly  constitutional 
party  in  the  Church. 

The  Moderate  leaders  opposed  the  motion ;  but  mark 
the  reason.  Not  one  of  them  challenged  the  soundness 
of  Thomson's  main  contention,  that  the  Church  was,  by 
her  Constitution,  spiritually  independent.  Dr.  Cook,  of 
Laurencekirk, — a  name  destined  to  become  well  known 


44      .  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

before  1843, — avowed  himself  prepared  to  maintain,  as 
well  as  the  Evangelical  chief,  that  no  civil  authority  could 
constitutionally  prescribe  heads  of  prayer  to  the  Church ; 
but  he  denied  that  there  had  been  any  infringement  of 
her  liberties  in  the  present  instance.  The  Lord  Justice- 
Clerk  Boyle  took  the  same  line,  referring  to  the  gracious 
manner  in  which  the  King  had  recently  declared  his 
resolution  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  and  boasting  of  his  own  descent  from  one  wdio 
had  borne  a  distinguished  part  in  the  ancient  struggles 
of  the  Church  in  defence  of  her  independence.  He 
moved,  therefore,  that  "  Whereas  the  independence  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  in  all  matters  of  faith,  worship, 
and  discipline  is  fully  established  by  law,  the  General 
Assembly  finds  it  unnecessary  and  inexpedient  to  adopt 
any  declaration  with  regard  to  the  late,  or  any  former. 
Order  in  Council  relative  to  prayers  for  His  Majesty  and 
the  Eoyal  Family." 

The  original  motion  was  seconded  by  Mr.  James  AVell- 
wood  Moncreiff";  and  Andrew  Thomson,  in  concluding  a 
spirited  and  eloquent  debate,  reiterated  his  conviction  that 
the  Order  was  an  encroachment  on  the  Church's  independ- 
ence, adding  the  pathetic  and  almost  prophetic  words : 
"  I  trust  that  the  breath  of  official  authority  will  never 
be  allowed  to  wither  one  leaf  of  that  Plant  of  Eenown 
which  our  fathers  watered  with  their  blood,  and  of  which 
we  have  Ijeen  permitted  by  a  kind  r]"ovidence  to  eat  the 
pleasant  fruits."  The  motion  of  the  Justice-Clerk  was 
carried  by  126  votes  against  53.^ 

And  did  not  all  this,  the  reader  may  ask,  arise  simply 

^  Sa/fo's  Memorabilia. 


THOMSON  IN  A  CHARACTERISTIC  ATTITUDE.       45 

out  of  an  exhibition,  on  the  part  of  Andrew  Thomson,  of 
the  practice,  dear  to  clerical  and  oratorical  vanity,  of 
making  much  ado  about  little  or  nothing  ?  The  true- 
blue  followers  of  the  old  banner  throughout  the  manses 
and  homes  of  Scotland  did  not  think  so.  But  be  the 
question  answered,  for  argument's  sake,  in  the  afltirin- 
ative.  Could  any  illustration  bring  out  more  vividly 
than  is  done  by  this  debate,  the  keen  and  conscientious 
vigilance  w"ith  wdiich  Andrew  Thomson  and  his  party 
guarded  the  soleness  of  that  allegiance  which  the  Church 
owed  to  her  heavenly  King  ?  And  could  the  Moderate 
party,  Dr.  Cook  and  the  Lord  of  Session,  Boyle,  and  the 
rest  of  them,  have  more  convincingly  shown  their  own 
lielief  in  the  reality  and  the  justice  of  the  Church's 
claim  to  exercise  independence  in  all  spiritual  matters 
than  by  the  course  they  took  in  arguing  against 
Thomson  ?  Is  it  not  impossible  to  ol)serve  the  posi- 
tion assumed  by  the  dominant  party,  without  recognis- 
ing that  it  never  occurred  to  them  to  dispute  that  the 
Scottish  Church  occupied  an  entirely  difterent  position, 
in  relation  to  the  State,  from  that  occupied  by  the 
Church  of  England  ?  True,  there  might  arise  difference 
of  opinion  as  to  whether,  in  any  particular  instance,  the 
State  had  made  some  slight  encroachment  on  the  sphere 
of  the  Church,  or  the  Churcli  some  slight  encroachment 
on  the  sphere  of  the  State ;  but  this  debate  sets  it  forth, 
as  with  the  writing  of  meridian  sunlight,  that  not  a 
speaker  even  on  the  Moderate  side  imagined  the  rights 
and  powers  of  tlie  Churcli  to  have  emanated  from  the 
State,  or  that  the  State  could,  without  tyrannical 
usurpation,     treat     her     spiritual    jurisdiction    as    non- 


46  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

existent.  It  was  obviously  no  secondary  matter  on 
which,  on  such  an  occasion,  —  the  recent  accession  of  a 
sovereign,  —  Andrew  Thomson  could  have  ventured  to 
make  such  a  stand.  It  was  because  the  Church  had 
in  her  best  days  guarded  her  spiritual  independence 
as  the  apple  of  her  eye  that  he  spoke  out ;  and  the 
strongest  of  the  arguments  by  which  the  Moderate 
party  obtained  a  decisive  majority  against  hun  was, 
that  the  principle  which  he  sought  to  vindicate  had 
been  called  in  question  by  no  one,  and  needed  no 
vindication. 

In  the  General  Assembly  of  1820,  Thomson  had  risen 
to  repel  the  intrusive  foot  of  Eoyalty — or  what  seemed 
to  be  such — from  the  sanctuary  of  the  Church's  inde- 
pendence. In  the  General  Assembly  of  1825,  he 
proved  himself  true  to  her  genius  and  history,  by 
vigilant  assertion  of  the  rights  of  the  Christian  people. 
A  presentation  had  been  issued  by  the  Crown  to  the 
living  of  Little  Dunkeld  in  favour  of  an  individual  who 
was  totally  unacquainted  with  the  Gaelic  language.  The 
congregation  had  always  enjoyed  a  Gaelic  mmistry,  and 
the  Presbytery  had  therefore  refused  to  sustain  the  pre- 
sentation. Their  decision  had  been  confirmed  by  the 
Synod  of  Perth  and  Stirling,  and  was  carried  for  final 
settlement  to  the  Assembly.  Thomson  moved  that  the 
decision  of  the  Presbytery  and  Synod  should  be  ratified, 
and  the  Crown  be  respectfully  requested  to  bring  forward 
a  presentee  who  could  address  the  Highlanders  in  their 
own  tongue.  He  was  supported  by  another  leader 
of  the  Evangelicals  who  had  not  been  a  memljer 
of    the    Assembly   of    1820,    but   who,    though    not   so 


THOMSON  IN  A  CHARACTERISTIC  ATTITUDE.       47 

well  equipped  as  Andrew  Thomson  with  the  tactical 
qualifications  of  a  party  leader,  was  still  more  bril- 
liant in  his  intellectual  attributes  than  he.  Thomson's 
motion  was  seconded  by  Chalmers !  The  combina- 
tion was  irresistible.  The  motion  was  carried  by  107 
to  89. 


chaptp:k  yi. 

ON  the  9th  of  February  1831,  Andrew  Thomson,  then 
about  fifty  years  of  age,  took  part  in  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh,  displaying  the  full 
vigour  of  his  mental  and  physical  energies.  He  walked 
home  with  a  friend,  engaging,  as  was  his  wont,  in  cordial 
talk.  At  his  own  door,  in  turning  roinid  for  a  parting 
word,  he  fell  dead. 

Seldom  has  all  that  human  wisdom  could  have  wishetl 
for  or  prescribed,  with  reference  to  a  not  far  distant 
future,  been  moie  mysteriously  baffled  than  by  the 
death,  at  that  moment,  of  Andrew  Tliomson.  He 
would  have  shone  so  grandly  in  the  Ten  Years'  Con- 
flict !  He  was  the  realised  ideal  of  a  party  leader, — 
fur  the  dazzlement  of  genius,  as  has  been  abundantly 
attested  both  in  the  ecclesiastical  and  the  civil  history 
of  Britain,  has  something  in  it  at  variance  with  con- 
sunnnate  excellence  of  party  management.  Scotchmen 
were  proud  of  Chalmers,  but  they  placed  their  more 
sober  trust  in  Andrew  Thomson.  Holding,  through 
M'Crie,   as   has   Ijeen    said,   with    the    past    of    Scottish 


A  SUDDEN  CHANGE.  49 

Church  history,  he  was  intensely  modern  in  his  caggress- 
ive  assaults  upon  the  slave-trade  and  the  whole  system 
of  slavery,  in  his  opposition  to  the  Test  and  Corporation 
Acts,  in  his  sympathy  with  the  great  liberal  cuirent  in 
the  movement  of  his  time.  Early  in  the  century  he 
had  founded  The  Christian  Instructor,  the  pioneer  of  a 
thousand  such  periodicals ;  had  drawn  into  it,  with  wise 
comprehensiveness,  the  tiower  of  religious  literary  talent 
both  within  and  without  the  pale  of  the  Cliurch ;  and 
had  made  it  an  instrumentality,  prized  and  treasured  in 
ten  thousand  Scottish  families,  for  keeping  himself  in  touch 
with  the  conscience  and  heart  of  Scotland.  He  flung 
from  him  as  a  fooHsh  prejudice  that  jealousy  of  culture 
in  association  with  devoutness,  and  of  comehness  and 
joyfulness  in  the  worship  of  God,  which  has  been  vaguely 
supposed  to  be  an  attiibute  of  Presbyterianism.  Pos- 
sessing great  taste  and  capacity  in  music,  himself  a 
musical  composer,  he  led  the  way  in  that  reform  of 
Church  music  which  has  since  been  so  beneficently 
developed. 

Seldom  has  Carlyle,  even  in  those  clouded  years  when 
the  reader  is  frequently  reminded  of  the  saying,  "  Son  of 
thunder,  but  thou  hast  become  marvellously  weak  in 
thine  old  age,"  missed  the  mark  so  completely  as  in  his 
reference  to  Andrew  Thomson  in  the  Reminiscences. 
"  Once,"  says  Carlyle,  "  I  recollect  transiently  seeing 
the  famed  Andrew;  and  what  a  lean-minded,  iracund, 
ignorant  kind  of  man  Andrew  seemed  to  me."  But 
Carlyle's  own  statement  in  connection  with  the  forma- 
tion of  the  tie  between  Chalmers  and  Irving  appears  to 
be  inconsistent  with  the  idea  that  there  was  anytliing 
4 


50  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

of  the  pinched  and  frigid  zealot  in  Tliomson.  Irving, 
Carlyle  tells  lis,  gave  offence,  in  the  very  dawn  of  his 
l)ulpit  powers,  to  a  certain  "  hidebound  })ublic  "  both  in 
Kirkcaldy  and  in  Edinburgh.  In  the  manner  and  still 
more  in  the  matter  of  Irving  there  was  a  "  novelty " 
that  was  "  sufficiently  surprising,"  an  importunate 
demand,  in  particular,  that  actual  practice  should  Ije 
squared  with  speech  and  theory — "  If  this  thing  is 
true,  why  not  do  it  ? " — that  gave  "  astonishment  and 
deep  offence  "  to  "  hidebound  mankind."  "  Both  in  Fife 
and  over  in  Edinburgh,"  says  Carlyle,  "  I  have  known 
the  offence  very  rampant."  But  it  was  Andrew 
Thomson  who  directed  the  attention  of  Chalmers  to 
Irving ;  it  was  Andrew  Thomson  who  induced  Chalmers 
to  come  incognito  and  hear  Irving  in  Thomson's  own 
pulpit,  and  wdiose  word,  presumably  in  opposition  to  the 
verdict  of  the  narrowly  orthodox,  was  in  favour  of 
Chalmers's  choice  of  Irving  as  his  assistant.  If  Carlyle's 
imagination  did  not,  as  seems  most  probable,  falsify  in 
this  instance  the  original  record  of  his  memory,  his  im- 
pression must  have  been  due  to  his  own  jaundiced  eye- 
sight, rendered  untrustworthy  by  the  setting  in  of  his 
dyspepsia  and  by  other  experiences  of  what  he  describes 
as  "  four  or  five  most  miserable,  dark,  sick,  and  heavy- 
laden  years."  Carlyle's  eye -glimpse  of  Thomson  con- 
tradicts all  the  contemporary  accounts  we  have  of  the 
man.  These  concur  in  laying  stress  upon  his  radiant 
geniality,  his  frank  and  cordial  bearing. 

Chalmers  was  overpowered  with  a  passion  of  tears 
when  he  heard  of  Thomson's  death.  His  hand,  he  said, 
had  no  steadiness   to   draw  the   lineaments   of   one  who, 


A  SUDDEN  CHANGE.  51 

though  dead,  seemed  still  to  look  upon  him  with  the 
vividness  of  life.  In  his  funeral  sermon  he  brought  out 
forcibly  the  importance  of  the  fallen  leader  as  a  figure 
in  the  Edinburgh  and  in  the  Scotland  of  the  time.  "  It 
is  as  if  death,"  he  said,  "  had  wanted  to  make  the  highest 
demonstration  of  his  sovereignty,  and  for  this  purpose  had 
selected  as  his  mark  him  who  stood  the  foremost  and  the 
most  conspicuous  in  the  view  of  his  countrymen.  I  speak 
not  at  present  of  any  of  the  relations  in  which  he  stood 
to  the  living  society  immediately  around  him, — to  the 
thousands  in  church  whom  his  well-known  voice  reached 
upon  the  Sabbath, — to  the  tens  of  thousands  in  the  city 
whom,  through  the  week,  in  the  varied  rounds  and 
meetings  of  Christian  philanthropy,  he  either  guided  by 
his  counsel  or  stimulated  by  his  eloquence.  You  know, 
over  and  above,  how  far  the  wide,  and  the  wakeful,  and 
the  untired  benevolence  of  his  nature  carried  him ;  and 
that,  in  the  labours  and  the  locomotions  connected  with 
these,  he  may  be  said  to  have  become  the  personal 
acquaintance  of  the  people  of  Scotland,  insomuch  that 
there  is  not  a  village  of  the  land  where  the  tidings  of 
his  death  have  not  conveyed  the  intimation  that  a  master 
m  Israel  has  fallen ;  and  I  may  also  add,  that  such  was 
the  charm  of  hia-  companionship,  such  the  cordiality 
lighted  up  by  his  presence  in  every  household,  that, 
connected  with  this  death,  there  is,  at  this  moment,  an 
oppressive  sadness  in  the  hearts  of  many  thousands,  even 
of  our  most  distant  Scottish  families."  The  death  of 
Thomson  was  a  "  national  loss."  He  had  "  but  gambolled 
with  the  difficulties  that  would  have  depressed  and  over- 
borne other  men."     Of   the   blending  of  softer  elements 


52  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

with  Thomson's  strength  Chahiiers  spoke  as  lending  a 
peculiar  charm  to  his  character,  analogous  to  that  of 
delicate  beauty  among  Alpine  crags.  From  the  ground- 
work of  masculine  firmness,  from  "  the  substratimi  of 
moral  strength  and  grandeur,"  there  "  effloresced "  in 
tenfold  beauty  the  "  gentler  charities  of  the  heart."  "  To 
myself,"  said  the  preacher,  "  he  was  at  all  times  a  joyous, 
hearty,  gallant,  honourable,  and  out-and-out  most  trust- 
worthy friend."  Such  a  testimony  was  at  the  same  time 
a  testimony  to  the  heart  that  gave  it. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
(Uon;5nfru6ton. 

"^TTE  saw  that  one  of  the  main  objects  kept  in  view  by 
'  '  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson  in  the  Assembly  leadership 
of  the  High  Presbyterian  party,  was  the  guardianship  of 
the  liberties  of  the  Christian  people  in  the  settlement  of 
pastors.  Not  only  did  he  exert  himself  to  the  utmost 
to  bring  the  administrative  enginery  of  the  Church  to 
prevent  presentees  from  being  forced  vipon  unwilling 
Hocks,  but  he  set  on  foot  a  society  with  a  view  to  buying 
up  patronages,  and  thus  giving  free  course  to  the  popular 
choice. 

His  death  took  place  at  that  critical  moment  when  the 
agitation  for  parliamentary  reform  was  approacliing  its 
climax,  and  the  epoch-making  Reform  Bill  of  1832  was 
beginning  to  loom  in  the  distance.  The  public  mind 
throughout  Scotland  was  vehemently  excited ;  the  spirit 
of  democratic  aspiration,  like  a  quickening,  thrilUng  fire- 
mist,  was  in  the  social  atmosphere  ;  and,  as  had  from  time 
immemorial  been  the  case,  the  democratic  aspiration  in 
the  State  showed  itself  with  conspicuous  fervency  in  the 
Church.      A  disposition  was  manifested  in  the  ranks  of 

53 


54  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

the  Evangelicals  not  to  wait  for  tlie  slow  operation  of 
a  system  of  purchase,  but  to  assail  patronage  compre- 
hensively and  at  once.  When  the  parliamentary  Eeform 
Bill  was  passed,  the  Anti-Patronage  Society  declared  for 
the  total  abolition  of  patronage. 

In  the  Assembly  of  1832,  Chalmers  occupied  the 
Moderator's  chair.  It  is  the  place  of  highest  honour 
attainable  by  any  member,  and  Chalmers's  Moderator- 
ship  attests  not  only  his  own  lofty  position  in  the  Church, 
but  the  rise  in  importance  and  influence  of  the  party  of 
which  he  was  now  the  acknowledged  leader.  A  little 
more  than  fifty  summers  had  passed  over  him,  and 
years  had  brought  to  him  not  a  breath  of  decay,  but 
only  the  full  maturity  and  mellow  strength  of  his  powers. 
Few  men  could  enter  with  more  faitliful  sympathy  than 
his  into  all  that  was  refined  and  elevating  in  Moderatism. 
But  to  every  argument  in  its  favour  he  had  one  un- 
answerable reply.  He  had  hccn  a  Moderate !  He  knew 
that  it  had  lost  Christ's  miracle-gift,  and  could  cast  out 
no  devils.  He  had  tried  its  sweetest  songs,  its  most 
eloquent  enchantments,  on  the  devils  of  rustic  Kilmany, 
and  not  a  devil  of  them  would  budge.  He  had  paid  fine 
compliments  to  Christ,  and  painted  up  the  beauty  of 
virtue,  and  no  one  had  minded  Christ  or  cared  for  viitue. 
He  began  preaching  Christ  as  Paul,  and  Luther,  and 
Bunyan,  and  Erskine  had  preached  Him,  and  the  devils 
began  at  once  to  scamper  and  the  virtue  to  come  in.  He 
had  hecn  a  Moderate ;  he  could  never  be  a  Moderate 
again. 

Tlie  sul)ject  of  patronage  was  brought  np  by  applica- 
tions, technically  styled  overtures,  from  eleven  Presbyteries 


NON-INTRUSION.  55 

and  three  Synods.  These  prayed  the  Assembly  to  take 
steps  to  secure  to  the  call  of  the  congregation  its  ancient 
and  salutary  force,  and  to  prevent  its  being  turned  into 
an  empty  form  by  usurpation  of  all  rights  by  patrons. 

Dr.  Robert  Brown,  of  Aberdeen,  speaking  for  the  Evan- 
gelicals, proposed  that  a  committee  should  be  appointed  to 
consider  tlie  overtures  and  report  to  the  next  Assembly. 
Principal  Macfarlane,  a  leading  Moderate,  moved  that 
the  overtures  should  be  dismissed  as  "  unnecessary  and 
inexpedient."  He  was  supported  in  an  elaborate  speech 
by  the  Eight  Hon.  Justice-Clerk  Boyle,  the  same  whom 
we  found  so  jauntily  pooh-poohing  Andrew  Thomson's 
protest  against  State  encroachment  on  the  independence 
of  the  Church.  He  spoke  with  the  vehemence  natural 
to  a  high  legal  and  Conservative  functionary,  wlio 
shuddered  at  that  evil  and  perilous  thing,  the  will  of  the 
people.  The  question  was  in  his  eyes  of  "  gigantic  im- 
portance." The  drift  of  the  overtures,  he  insisted,  was 
to  destroy  the  rights  of  patrons,  and  to  introduce  popular 
election  with  all  its  Hood  of  evils.  Universal  confusion 
would  cover  the  land,  and  there  would  be  an  end  of  the 
peace  and  harmony  that  had  hitherto  reigned.  If  tliis 
were  indeed  desired,  the  Assembly  ought  to  go  manfully 
to  Parliament  and  ask  for  an  alteration  in  tlie  law. 

To  reply  to  this  imposing  display  of  aristocratic  and 
forensic  eloquence  there  arose,  amid  the  questioning- 
amazement  of  the  Assembly,  an  exceedingly  young  man, 
with  keen,  bright,  imperturbably  self-confident  face, 
whom  the  few  who  knew  liim  named  to  their  whispering 
neighbours  as  the  Picv.  James  Begg,  of  Paisley.  That 
a  man  of  twenty-three,  on   his   first   appearance  in  the 


56  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Assembly,  should  take  a  prominent  part  in  a  leading 
debate,  and  should  enter  the  lists  against  giants  like 
Boyle  and  Macfarlane,  was  a  thing  unheard  of.  Ex- 
perienced beholders  anticipated  doubtless  that  the  bold 
speaker  would  blunder  into  self-effacement.  But  in  this 
cause  James  Begg  might  claim  to  be  a  predestined 
champion.  He  first  drew  breath  in  the  parish  of  New 
Monkland,  on  the  banks  of  the  Clyde,  where  the  very 
breezes,  as  they  swept  over  copse,  and  corn,  and  heather, 
might  sing  of  Covenant  wars  and  Presbyterian  contend- 
ings.  A  band  from  the  parish  had  marched  to  Bothwell 
Bridge,  and  the  boy  Begg  had  often  looked  with  reverent 
admiration  on  tlie  silken  l^anner,  emblazoned  with  Bible, 
crown,  and  thistle  in  gold,  round  which  his  fellow- 
parishioners  had  fought  and  fallen.  It  was  perhaps 
not  so  surprising,  therefore,  that  he  should  have  been 
audaciously  eager  for  the  fray  when  one  of  the  essential 
principles  of  his  ancestral  Bresbyterianism  was  at  stake. 
Nor  did  he  stammer  or  ])etray  any  tendency  to  nervous 
discomposure.  Logic  and  lucidity,  precision  and  a  trace 
of  sarcastic  pungency,  characterised  his  remarks,  rather 
than  festoons  of  flowery  eloquence  or  exuberance  of 
youthful  sentiment.  The  prickly  sharpness  of  some 
of  his  observations  on  the  Moderate  big  -  wigs  won 
him  the  hearts  of  the  students  in  the  gallery,  and 
Moderator  Chalmers,  wdio  dearly  loved  a  joke,  forgot  the 
awful  solemnity  of  his  seat,  and  actually  clapped  his 
hands  and  laughed. 

But  tlie  most  notaltle  thing  in  James  Begg's  speech 
was  the  nice  exactness  with  which  he  signalised  the 
object  to  be  ahned  at  by   the    Church  as   essential  in 


NOI^- INTRUSION.  O  / 

the  matter  of  patronage.  Total  abolition,  he  admitted, 
could  not  be  effected  by  the  Church  without  inter- 
vention of  Parliament.  The  indispensable  point  was 
that  no  pastor  should  be  forced  into  a  church 
against  the  will  of  the  people.  This,  he  maintained, 
had,  since  the  Eeformation,  been  a  principle  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  she  possessed  power,  dormant 
but  sufficient,  to  give  effect  to  it.  What  they  wanted 
was  Non  -  intrusion.  "  I  have  no  fear,"  he  said,  "  of 
civil  interference.  Indeed,  if  such  interference  were 
attempted,  it  would  then  become  a  question  for  every 
honest  man  to  determine  how  long  he  could  consistently 
remain  a  member  of  a  Church  thus  rendered  unable  to 
enforce  her  most  salutary  laws." 

Begff  rose  unknown,  and  sat  down  famous.  The 
fledgling  orator  who  had  put  the  Lord  Justice-Clerk 
Boyle  and  Dr.  Macfarlane  to  their  mettle,  whose  fine 
hitting  and  cheery  bumptiousness,  and  born  Scottish 
sagacity,  had  made  Chalmers  forget  his  dignity  in  a 
boyish  burst  of  sympathetic  laughter,  was  henceforward 
a  pubHc  man  and  leader  of  the  people  in  Scotland.  The 
Moderates  carried  their  point  by  a  majority  of  forty-two. 
But  from  Begg's  lip  had  fallen  the  word  that  became 
a  watchword  in  the  ranks  of  the  party,  and  a  cliief 
popular  blazon  on  its  banner — Nox-Intkusion  ' 


CHAPTEE     VIIL 
t^e  (Pefo   (^ct. 

TN  the  Assembly  of  1833,  Dr.  Chalmers  was  not  in  the 
-*-  chair,  but  was  all  the  more  able,  on  that  account,  to 
influence  the  deliberations  of  the  Court.  The  eleven 
inferior  courts  that  had  overtured  the  Assembly  of  1832  on 
patronage  were  now  in  number  forty-two.  In  the  interval 
he  had  fully  considered  the  question,  and  his  views  on  the 
whole  subject  were  provisionally  made  up.  His  prefer- 
ence was  decisive  for  the  plan  of  concurrent  legislation  on 
the  part  of  the  Church  and  the  State,  as  compared  with 
that  of  disposing  of  the  difficulty  by  legislation  on  the 
part  of  the  Church  alone.  On  this  point,  however,  he 
allowed  himself  to  be  overruled  by  Lord  Moncreiff  of  the 
Court  of  Session,  whose  eminence  as  a  lawyer  and  devoted 
loyalty  to  the  Church  of  Scotland  seemed  to  accredit  him 
as  practically  infallible  in  pointing  out  a  way  liy  which 
the  possibility  of  collision  might  be  avoided.  Lord 
Moncreiff  was  firmly  convinced  that  the  Church  was 
constitutionally  possessed  of  the  power  to  deal  conclusively 
with  patronage,  and  thought  she  ought  to  do  so  at  once. 
He,  as  well  as  Dr.  Chalmers,  was  strenuously  opposed  to 


THE   VETO  ACT.  59 

the  total  abolition  of  patronage,  but  he  had  no  donbt  that 
the  Church  possessed  jurisdiction  sufficient  to  enable  her 
to  frame  such  a  measure  as  should  shred  away  the  evils 
with  which  it  had  become  associated. 

Chalmers  was  not,  in  politics,  ardently  democratic. 
The  ordinary  man,  the  arithmetical  unit  of  the  popula- 
tion, did  not  impress  him  as  particularly  sublime.  He 
had  an  unaffected  horror  of  the  electioneering  charlatan, 
the  patriotism  made  to  sell,  tlie  village  demagogy,  the 
pothouse  palaver,  the  sordid  inspirations  that  with  fatal 
facihty  transmute  the  masses  into  the  worst,  the  most 
ravenous,  the  most  bloodthirsty  of  classes.  He  had 
lieen,  therefore,  upon  what  good  judges  now  generally 
esteem  the  wrong  as  well  as  the  beaten  side  in  the 
struggle  for  parliamentary  reform. 

But  no  one  had  a  higher  appreciation  of  man  idealised 
on  the  model  of  Christ  than  he.  No  one  cherished 
a  firmer  faith  in  the  power  of  the  most  unlettered 
member  of  the  Christian  brotherhood  to  discern  in  another 
the  lineaments  of  the  King.  He  had  a  tragic  feeling  of 
the  cruelty  of  inflicting  a  godless  or  uncongenial  minister 
on  godly  parishioners.  He  thought  with  reverent  admira- 
tion of  the  zeal  of  the  old  Church  of  Scotland  in  guard- 
ing the  Christian  people  from  ha\dng  such  forced  upon 
them.  "  The  great  complaint  of  our  more  ancient 
Assemblies,"  he  told  the  Assembly  of  1833,  "  the  great 
burden  of  Scottisli  indignation,  the  practical  grievance 
which,  of  all  others,  has  been  hitherto  felt  the  most 
intolerable  and  galling  to  the  hearts  of  a  free  and 
religious  people,  is  the  violent  intrusion  of  ministers 
upon  parishes." 


60  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

He  traced  in  vivid  outline  the  history  of  the  Church's 
doings  in  the  matter.  Fii-st  of  all,  at  the  very  fountain- 
head  of  Scottish  Presbyterianism,  in  1560,  the  method 
had  been  that  of  election  pure  and  simple.  But  in 
1578,  after  eighteen  years  of  experience  and  experi- 
ment, a  twofold,  or  perhaps  rather  a  threefold  system  was 
matured,  and  embodied  in  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline. 
The  eldership  in  the  congregation  nominated  the  pre- 
sentee, with  or  without  conjunction  of  a  patron ;  and  if 
the  people  gave  their  consent,  the  indviction  took  place. 
The  rule  is  laid  down  "  that  no  one  be  intruded  contrary 
to  the  will  of  the  congregation  or  without  the  voice  of  the 
eldership."  In  1649,  when  the  Westminster  Standards 
were  finally  domiciled  in  Scotland,  and  in  1690,  when 
the  Church  arose,  at  the  Revolution  Settlement,  after  the 
long  persecution  of  the  later  Stuarts,  the  same  principle 
of  the  interdict  or  veto  of  the  people  was  recognised  and 
ratified. 

The  practical  operation  of  the  system  had  been  benefi- 
cent and  pacific.  The  "  popular  wdl,"  skilfully  inserted 
in  its  proper  place,  served  as  an  equipoise  rather  than 
as  an  element  of  strife.  "  It  was  when  a  high-handed 
patronage  reigned  uncontrolled  and  without  a  rival,  that 
discord  and  dissent  multiplied  in  our  parishes."  The 
question  then  arose  whether  the  people,  in  entering  their 
interdict,  in  uttering  theii'  veto,  should  or  should  not 
specify,  explain,  and  vindicate  the  reasons  why  they 
objected  to  the  presentee.  This  proved  to  be  a  most 
difficult,  delicate,  and  important  question.  Chalmers  held 
that  the  essential  thing  was  tlie  fad  of  non-consent,  the 
will  of  the  people,  and  that  exposition  or  argumentation  in 


THE   VETO  ACT.  Gl 

support  of  their  decision  was  unnecessary.  The  peasant 
Christian,  "  while  fully  competent  to  discern  the  truth, 
may  he  as  incompetent  as  a  child  "  to  show  it  in  argu- 
ment. "  When  required  to  give  the  reasons  of  his  objec- 
tion to  a  minister  at  the  l)ar  of  his  Presbytery,  all  the 
poor  man  can  say  for  himself  might  be,  that  he  does  not 
preach  the  gospel,  or  that  in  his  sermon  there  is  no  food 
for  his  soul."  "  In  very  proportion  to  my  sympathy  and 
my  depth  of  veneration  for  the  Christian  appetency 
of  such  cottage  patriarchs,  would  be  the  painfulness,"  said 
Chalmers,  "  I  should  feel  when  the  cross-questionings  of 
a  court  of  review  were  brought  to  bear  upon  them." 
"  To  overbear  such  men  is  the  higliway  to  put  an 
extinguisher  on  the  Christianity  of  our  land, — the  Chris- 
tianity of  our  ploughmen,  our  artisans,  our  men  of  handi- 
craft and  of  hard  labour ;  yet  not  the  Christianity  theks 
of  deceitful  imagination,  or  of  implicit  deference  to 
authority,  but  the  Christianity  of  deep,  I  will  add,  of 
rational  belief,  firmly  and  profoundly  seated  in  the 
principles  of  our  moral  nature,  and  nobly  accredited 
l)y  the  virtues  of  our  well-conditioned  peasantry.  In  the 
older  time  of  Presbytery, — that  tune  of  scriptural  Chris- 
tianity in  our  pulpits  and  of  psalmody  in  all  our  cottages, 
— these  men  grew  and  multiplied  in  the  land ;  and 
though  derided  in  the  heartless  literature,  and  discoun- 
tenanced or  disowned  in  the  heartless  politics  of  other 
days,  it  is  their  remnant  which  acts  as  a  preserving  salt 
among  our  people,  and  which  constitutes  the  real  strength 
and  glory  of  the  Scottish  nation." 

But  the  Moderates  were  resolute,  and  felt  it  doubtless 
pleasant  to  thwart  the  Evangelical  leader  who  outshone 


62  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

them  all.  Chalmers's  motion,  therefore,  to  give  constant 
and  imperative  effect  to  the  congregational  tcto,  was 
defeated  in  the  Assembly  of  1833  by  twelve  votes. 

Another  year  went  past.  Chahuers  was  no  longer  a 
member  of  the  Assembly.  But  the  tide  had  been  flowing 
vehemently  in  favour  of  the  popular  party.  The  motion 
which  he  had  brought  forward  was,  in  substantial,  re- 
introduced by  Lord  Moncreiff,  and  carried  by  a  majority 
of  forty-six.  This  was  the  famed  Veto  Act  of  1834. 
It  decreed  that,  wdien  a  congregation  reclaimed  against 
the  presentee  nominated  by  a  patron,  their  rejection 
should  take  effect. 

As  it  was  not  a  voluminous  piece  of  legislation,  and  as 
an  accurate  acquaintance  with  it  is  the  simplest  and 
surest  guarantee  of  a  just  and  lucid  apprehension  of  all 
that  followed,  the  intelligent  reader  will  perhaps  like 
to  have  before  him 

The  Veto  Act. 

"  The  General  Assembly  declare,  that  it  is  a  fundamental 
of  their  Church,  that  no  pastor  shall  be  intruded  on  any 
congregation  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  people ;  and  in 
order  that  this  principle  may  be  carried  into  full  effect, 
the  General  Assembly,  with  the  consent  of  a  majority  of 
the  Presbyteries  of  this  Church,  do  declare,  enact,  and 
ordain,  That  it  shall  be  an  instructicjn  to  Presbyteries, 
that  if,  at  the  moderating  in  a  call  to  a  vacant  pastoral 
charge,  the  major  part  of  the  male  heads  of  families, 
memljei'S  of  the  vacant  congregation,  and  in  full  com- 
munion with  the  Church,  shall  disapprove  of  the  person 
in  whose  favour  the  call  is  proposed  to  be  moderated  in, 


THE   VETO  ACT.  63 

such  disapproval  shall  he  deemed  sufficient  ground  for 
tlie  Presbytery  rejecting  such  person,  and  that  he  shall 
be  rejected  accordingly,  and  due  notice  thereof  forthwith 
given  to  all  concerned ;  but  that,  if  the  major  part  of  the 
said  heads  of  families  shall  not  disapprove  of  such  person 
to  be  their  pastor,  the  Presbytery  shall  proceed  with  the 
settlement  according  to  the  rules  of  the  Church  : 

"  And  further  declare,  That  no  person  shall  be  held  to 
be  entitled  to  disapprove  as  aforesaid,  who  shall  refuse,  if 
required,  solemnly  to  declare  in  presence  of  the  Presby- 
tery, that  he  is  actuated  by  no  factious  or  malicious 
motive,  but  solely  by  a  conscientious  regard  to  the 
spiritual  interests  of  himself  or  the  congregation." 

Such,  in  its  length  and  its  breadth,  is  the  celebrated 
Veto  Act,  which  thousands  who  never  looked  at  it 
denounced  as  the  manifesto  of  a  rebelhous  Church,  but 
which  has  reason  and  righteousness  shining  on  its  face, 
and  connnended  itself  to  what  instincts  there  were  of 
justice  and  generous  courage  even  in  the  prejudiced  heart 
of  Peel,  and  which  was  the  Pharos  light  that  guided  the 
true-hearted,  patriotic,  and  indomitable  Argylls,  the  dis- 
tinguished father  and  the  more  distinguished  son,  in  their 
long  and  at  last  victorious  battle  with  Church  patronage  in 
Scotland.  Well  considered,  and  viewed  in  the  light  of 
the  infinite  dis[)utation  that  suljsequently  arose,  it  will  be 
seen  to  be  a  masterly  bit  of  legislative  work.  It  would 
puzzle  an  expert  to  add  a  bettering  touch  t(j  the  nice 
felicity  of  its  defining  words.  To  tiing  open  the  door 
to  free  election  would  have  been  easy ;  1)ut  it  is  of  the 
very  essence  of  Christianity  that  the  one,  whether  the 
individual   or   the   congregation,   shall    have   the  benefit 


64  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

of  union  and  communion  with  the  many,  and  that  the 
many  shall  retain  vital  and  vivid  connection  with  the 
one ;  therefore  it  is  by  the  will  and  consent  hoth  of 
the  parochial  flock  and  of  the  aggregate  flock  and  fold, 
that  the  settlement  shall  take  place.  And  how  accur- 
ately do  such  words  as  "  consent,"  "  will,"  "  intrusion," 
"  disapproval,"  steer  clear  of  those  absolutely  interminable 
sophistications  and  debatings  that  arise  when,  in  such 
cases,  you  ask  people  to  state  in  words  the  reasons 
why  they  disapprove  ! 

On  one  point  these  wise  and  vigilant  guardians  of 
the  electoral  rights  of  congregations  take  care  that  there 
shall  be  no  mistake.  If  there  is  any  suspicion  of  a 
non-spiritual  motive,  if  there  is  any  reason  to  fear  the 
direct  or  indirect  action  of  political  boycott,  or  malice, 
or  bribery,  then  a  solemn  inquiry  is  to  be  instituted  into 
the  matter.  The  whole  affair  is  to  be  })ond  fide  spiritual ; 
and  if  the  State  suspects  a  trick,  it  will  have  the  best 
aid  of  the  machinery  of  the  Act  in  helping  to  expose  it. 

Never,  surely,  did  democracy  wear  a  less  revolutionary 
aspect,  or  come  in  a  less  questionable  or  alarming  shape, 
than  wdien  it  appeared  in  the  persons  of  the  male  heads 
of  families  in  full  communion  with  the  Church  earnestly 
deprecating  the  appointment  of  unedifying  men  to 
minister  to  them  in  sacred  things.  It  was  a  presump- 
tion too  potent  to  be  gainsaid, — a  presumption  warranted 
by  all  that  has  given  Scotchmen  their  good  name  among 
the  nations  of  the  world, — that  these  heads  of  families, 
communicants,  should  have  in  them  the  living  light  of 
Christianity.  They  might  therefore  have  the  clearest 
conviction    that  a  presentee,  even   though   his   doctrine 


THE   VETO  ACT.  65 

were  orthodox,  his  learning  snfficient,  his  Ufe  moral,  was 
nevertheless  spiritually  lifeless,  or  at  all  events  unedifying 
to  the  congregation.  The  Veto  Act  did  not  lay  a  finger 
on  the  temporal  benefits  of  the  incumbency ;  and,  of 
course,  the  patron,  finding  one  presentee  unacceptable, 
miglit  present  another  until  a  suitable  onc^  was  found. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
€^e  C0a^)ef  (^tntefere. 

~r)Y  the  Veto  Act  the  great  body  of  the  people  were 
-*-^  restored  to  their  true  place  in  the  Church.  This 
was  the  most  conspicuous  achievement  hitherto  realised 
hy  the  party  of  Eeform.  It  was  marvellously  adapted 
to  quicken  the  interest  of  the  people  in  the  Church, 
and  to  warm  the  attachment  with  which  they  re- 
garded their  pastors.  But  another  and  correspondent 
change,  by  which  the  pastorate  itself  should  be  brought 
into  accordance  with  the  original  model,  from  which  it 
had  largely  fallen,  was  necessary  to  the  complete  restora- 
tion aimed  at  by  the  movement  party. 

The  pastor,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  is  an  eminently 
important  figure  in  the  Catholic  Church,  reformed  on 
the  Presbyterian  pattern.  The  real  presence  of  Christ 
is  His  presence  in  the  breast  of  every  Christian,  and 
the  ideal  pastor  is  the  man  in  a  parish  who  glows 
most  visibly  with  the  presence  of  Christ,  and  in  whom 
liis  iiock  can  see  a  present  Christ.  He  has  a  variety  of 
duties,  and  perhaps  it  would  not  be  easy  to  convey  a 
more   lucid   or  more   comprehensive  idea  of   these   than 

0(j 


THE  CHAPEL  MINISTERS.  67 

Andrew  Melville,  New  Testament  in  hand,  furnishes  us 
with,  in  a  passage  that  has  doubtless  been  often  quoted 
but  will  bear  quoting  again.  Melville  adopts  the  view 
that  the  variety  of  names  applied  in  Scripture  to  pastors 
is  an  index  to  their  varieties  of  duty.  "  Sometimes,"  he 
says,  "  they  are  called  pastors,  because  they  feed  the 
congregation  ;  sometunes  ejnscopi  or  hisJwjys,  because  they 
watch  over  their  flock ;  sometimes  ministers,  by  reason 
of  their  service  and  office ;  and  sometimes  also  presbyters 
or  seniors,  for  the  gravity  in  manners  which  they  ought 
to  have  in  taking  care  of  the  spiritual  government 
which  ought  to  be  most  dear  unto  them." 

This  was  the  ideal  of  the  parish  minister,  which 
Andrew  Melville  believed  himself  able  to  draw  from 
Scripture.  It  speaks  well  for  the  practical  sense,  as 
well  as  for  the  sound  Christianity,  of  Melville,  that  so 
little  is  said  in  his  summary  about  pulpit  fluency  and 
oratorical  effulgence.  Neither  the  philosopher  explain- 
ing abstract  truth  to  an  illuminated  coterie,  nor  the 
})ulpit  rhetorician  moving  a  polite  audience  to  delicious 
tears  of  sentiment,  or  playing  upon  them  in  sunny 
ripples  of  hope  and  joy,  seems  to  have  entered  largely 
into  Melville's  conception  of  that  representative  of 
Christ  and  of  the  Church  in  a  parish,  who  was  to  share 
in  the  whole  life  of  his  congregation,  to  execute  discipline 
as  well  as  preach,  to  be,  in  doing  as  well  as  in  speaking, 
the  brother-servant  and  leader-friend  of  his  flock.  What- 
ever might  be  the  varieties  of  the  pastoral  name,  it  was 
in  vehement  opposition  to  the  genius  of  Presbyterianism, 
as  found  by  Melville  in  the  New  Testament,  that  the 
pastor  of  one  parish  should  not  be  in  a  position  of  equal 


68  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

and  perfect  brotherhood  with  the  pastors  of  other 
parishes.  To  deny  hiui  his  share  in  any  business  or 
concern  of  Church-session,  Presbytery,  Synod,  or  General 
Assembly,  was  to  outrage  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Christian  brotherhood. 

During  the  Moderate  ascendancy,  however,  —  in  the 
century  of  religious  indifference  and  spiritual  somnolence, 
— this  life-principle  had  been  violated,  and  a  dangerous 
and  schismatical  deviation  had  taken  place  from  the  parity 
of  the  pastorate.  Cu'cumstances  had  favoured  the  rise 
within  the  pale  of  the  Establishment  of  what  may  be 
called  an  alien  and  accidental  Congregationalism,  retaining 
the  Presbyterian  name  though  really  nondescript.  It  was 
due  mainly  to  hindrances  and  complications  arising  from 
the  State-connection.  That  connection  had  in  its  incipi- 
ency  been  friendly  and  loyal  on  both  sides.  The  Church 
had  recognised  the  authority  of  the  State ;  the  State, 
often  demurrmg,  had  on  the  whole  resjiected  the  spiritual 
independence  of  the  Church,  co-operating  with  her  in 
the  work  of  benefiting  the  nation.  A  visible  Church, 
exactly  as  a  visible  human  spirit,  must  have  food  and 
raiment ;  and  the  regulating  principle  of  the  arrangement 
between  Church  and  State  in  Scotland — the  regulating 
principle,  observe,  which  might  or  might  not  be  adhered 
to  with  mathematical  accuracy  in  detail — was  that  the 
State  should  supply  the  food  and  raiment,  the  Cluirch  the 
animating  spirit.  The  alliance  between  Church  and 
State  was  based  on  the  nnitual  recognition  of  co-ordinate 
jurisdiction. 

The  Church  was  not  required  to  sell  her  spiritual 
birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage ;  but  it  nnist  be  admitted 


THE  CHAPEL  MINISTERS.  69 

that,  whatever  they  did  or  did  not  sell  for  it,  the  mess 
of  pottage  allotted  to  the  pastors  of  the  Reformed  Church 
in  Scotland  was  a  pitifully  small  one.  Very  different 
from  the  butter,  in  a  lordly  dish,  which  the  Church  of 
England,  less  sensitive  as  to  her  birthright  of  spiritual 
jurisdiction,  managed  to  carry  off!  The  Scottish  barons, 
turbulent  and  rapacious,  had  kept  their  sovereign  on 
starvation  wages ;  and  they  were  the  last  of  men  to  take 
due  care,  when  they  divided  among  themselves  the 
splendid  properties  of  the  ancient  Church,  that,  in  addition 
to  the  wretched  provision  for  the  then  existing  clergy  of 
the  Eeformed  Church,  there  should  be  adequate  or 
approximately  adequate  means  provided  to  supply  the 
spiritual  wants  of  the  population  as  it  gradually  in- 
creased. 

The  matter  was  not,  however,  absolutely  overlooked. 
Not  to  cumber  ourselves  with  detail,  we  find  that, 
by  the  arrangement  ultimately  decided  on,  when  the 
population  of  any  parish  had  outgrown  the  supply 
of  Church  ordinances,  the  Church  and  the  Court  of 
Session,  co-operating  with  each  other,  w^ere  empowered 
to  erect  and  endow  a  new  charge.  But  the  action, 
both  of  the  Presbytery  and  of  the  Court  of  Session, 
was  made  conditional  upon  the  preliminary  consent  of 
landowners  "  possessing  at  least  three -fourths  of  the 
valued  rent  of  the  parish."  He  must  take  a  highly 
rose-coloured  view  of  the  spiritual  qualities  of  land- 
owners, who  does  not  see  that  this  would  prove  to  be 
a  retarding  stipulation.  Can  we  fail  to  realise  that, 
when  heritors  and  clerical  gentlemen,  lapped  in  the 
sweet    somnolence   of    Moderatism,    solaced    each   other 


70  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

over  their  claret,  they  might  feel  it  to  be  in  many  ways 
objectionable  to  multiply  charges  and  to  make  provision 
for  new  ministers  ?  The  population  increased.  The 
people  wanted  more  means  of  spiritual  instruction  than 
the  drowsy  lairds  and  listless  parsons  supplied.  Chapels 
of  ease,  as  they  were  called,  sprang  up.  But  there  were 
far  fewer  of  them  than  the  increase  of  the  population 
required,  and,  such  as  they  were,  they  by  no  means 
reached  the  standard  of  normal  Presbyterian  charges. 
The  Moderate  clergy  did  not  like  them.  As  in  England,  so 
in  Scotland,  during  the  philosophical  century,  it  was  Bible 
religion,  that  is  to  say,  the  religion  which  your  peasant 
Latimers,  your  plain  Bunyans,  Wesleys,  and  Spurgeons, 
see  flashing  on  them  from  the  Scripture  page,  that  the 
people  wanted  when  they  asked  for  more  ministers. 
The  people  found  it  also  a  great  advantage  that,  in  the 
case  of  the  chapels  of  ease,  there  were  no  patrons.  But 
all  this  was  poison  to  the  Moderate  clergy  and  their 
friends  the  lairds.  The  chapel  ministers  were  practic- 
ally treated  as  an  inferior  order,  allowed  indeed  to 
preach,  but  excluded  from  all  the  courts  of  the  Church. 

But  the  party  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  people  was  now 
in  the  ascendant.  The  Church  had  shaken  off  her  wintry 
slumbers,  and  was  putting  on  her  strength.  After  a 
spirited  debate,  the  General  Assembly  of  1834  swept 
away  by  a  large  majority  the  invidious  distinctions 
which  had  been  permitted  to  accumulate  between 
the  chapel  ministers  and  their  more  fully  -  endowed 
brethren.  Fixing  her  attention  upon  her  own  duty, 
without  waiting  for  tlie  laggard  action  of  the  civil 
power  to  provide  endowments, — placing  spiritual  things 


THE  CHAPEL  MINISTERS.  71 

first  and  material  things  second,  instead  of  letting 
the  soul  wait  upon  the  body,  —  the  Church  accepted, 
as  in  all  senses  the  equals  of  their  brethren,  those 
ministers  who  had  found  themselves  charges,  often  with- 
out her  help,  by  the  grace  of  God  and  the  freewill 
offerings  of  the  people  of  Scotland.  She  bestowed  upon 
them  all  the  dignities  and  powers  belonging  to  the 
Presbyterian  office-bearer. 

The  most  promment  part  in  this  debate  was  taken  by 
Mr.  Murray  Dunlop.  He  was  a  lawyer  of  great  learning, 
gifted  with  the  luminous  faculty  of  good  lawyers  in  its 
noblest  form.  A  man  of  great  general  capacity,  he 
was  subsequently  considered  the  ablest  of  the  Scottish 
members  of  Parliament ;  but  politics  were  for  him  the 
second,  not  the  first.  Devoted  to  his  Church  with  a 
glowing  and  beautiful  fervency,  he  entertained  for  her  a 
sentiment  that  was  religion,  heroism,  and  poetry  all  in 
one.  The  inspiration  of  a  glorious  present,  tlie  vision  of  a 
glorious  future,  the  Church  of  Scotland  arose  before  him, 
shaking  off  the  apathy  of  a  hundred  years,  restoring 
to  the  people  their  liberties  and  rights,  extending  to 
the  chapel  nunisters  their  privileges,  and  satisfying  all 
Seceders  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  they  had  so  long 
loved  and  waited  for,  was  again  willing  and  worthy  to 
receive  them  and  to  gather  her  whole  fiock  within  the 
ancient  fold.  "  Our  anxious  people,"  Mr.  Dunlop  now 
said,  "  from  the  door  of  every  tent  intensely  watch  the 
holy  banner.  Already,  blessed  be  God,  they  have  seen 
it  slightly  unfurl  in  the  rising  breeze,  and  lift  itself  in 
part  from  the  staff,  and  the  solemn  stir  of  preparation 
is  heard   throughout  the  camp ;  and  at  this  very  hour. 


72  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

with  prayer,  uplifted  hands,  and  eager  eyes,  they  watch 
the  moment  when  they  shall  see  it  once  more  broadly 
unfold  itself  to  the  glorious  sun,  and  hail  it  with  one 
long  loud  hosannah  that  shall  resovuid  from  shore  to 
shore." 

Not  all,  however,  in  the  Assembly  were  so  full  of 
faith  and  hope  as  Mr.  Dunlop.  The  prudent,  plausible, 
peace-loving  Dr.  Cook,  always  aiming  at  reasonableness 
of  speech,  sincerely  averse  to  quarrelling  with  the  Evan- 
gelical reformers,  l)ut  more  averse  still  to  quarrelling 
with  the  terrible  Court  of  Session,  pointed  out  that  in 
some  instances  Presbyteries  w^ere  actually  empowered  to 
deal  with  questions  connected  with  the  temporahties, 
and  expressed  a  strong  apprehension  that  difficulties 
might  arise  with  the  Civil  Power  if  the  chapel  ministers 
were  introduced  into  courts  thus  constituted.  A  corre- 
sponding fear  and  reverence  in  relation  to  property  had 
been  manifested  by  Dr.  Cook  in  the  discussions  on  the 
proposal  to  make  good  the  rights  of  congregations  against 
patrons.  Rights  of  the  Christian  people,  vindication  of 
Presbyterian  parity.  Church  extension  to  every  corner 
of  Scotland,  these  were  no  doubt  brave  notions,  but  what 
might  the  otlier  party  to  the  State  and  Church  alhance 
say  ?  What  if  the  pace  of  the  Church,  in  carrying  out 
her  own  spiritual  mission,  should  prove  too  rapid  for  the 
State  ? 

This  constant  trepidation  as  to  what  the  Civil  Power 
might  say,  called  forth  a  remonstrance  from  one  who 
had  marched  with  firm  step  among  "  Tamson's  men," 
and  on  whom  their  leader's  eye  had  often  glanced  witli 
kindling  recognition  and  exultant  sympathy.      Very  tall, 


THE  CHAPEL  MINISTERS.  16 

somewhat  ungainly,  with  a  huge  shock  of  curling  hair  and 
a  powerful  but  not  melodious  voice,  this  friend  and 
follower  of  Andrew  Thomson  was  no  courtly  orator ; 
hut  he  swayed  every  audience  he  addressed,  and  the 
more  cultivated  and  capable  the  audience,  the  more 
completely  did  it  owai  his  sway.  We  shall  know  him 
better  before  we  have  done,  —  his  name  was  William 
Cunningham.  Not  in  the  slightest  degree  disloyal  to 
the  connection  between  Church  and  State  was  he.  No 
foreboding  of  a  conflict  between  the  two  had  distressed 
him.  He  was  sincerely  disposed  to  defer  to  and  to 
honour  the  State  in  the  exercise  of  all  the  powers 
and  privileges  annexed  to  the  civil  jurisdiction.  But 
he  was  not  prepared  to  admit  that  the  Church  should 
do  good  only  by  permission  of  the  State, — that  the 
Church  should  ask  the  State,  with  bated  breath  and 
whispered  humbleness,  to  allow  her  to  be  true  to  Scot- 
land and  to  Christ.  This  was  in  his  view  mere  moral 
cowardice  and  spu'itual  paralysis.  "  The  principle,"  he 
said,  "  upon  which  this  House  has  too  often  acted  seems 
to  have  been  something  like  this,  —  that  in  conse- 
(^uence  of  our  connection  with  the  State,  we  have 
no  power  to  do  anything,  however  closely  connected 
with  the  interests  of  religion,  which  the  State  has 
not  expressly  warranted  and  authorised ;  whereas,  the 
true  principle  by  which  we  ought  to  be  guided  — 
true  ahke  in  doctrine  and  in  fact — is  this,  that  not- 
withstanding our  connection  with  the  State,  we  can 
and  ought  to  do  everything  fitted  to  promote  the 
interests  of  religion  which  the  State  has  not  expressly 
prohibited." 


74  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

This  might  seem  at  first  glance  no  great  difference, 
but  for  Cunningham  it  meant  much.  In  his  view  the 
State  was  answ^erable  to  Christ  as  well  as  the  Church, 
and  therefore  it  would  be  a  virtual  accusation  of  unfaith- 
fulness on  the  part  of  the  State  to  suppose  that  it 
prohibited  anything  in  the  spuitual  province  which 
Christ's  officers  in  that  province  found  prescribed  for 
them  in  Christ's  law.  And  Cunningham  had  deliberately 
and  with  all  possible  publicity  committed  hunself  to  the 
statement  that,  if  the  Church  could  not  promote  the 
spiritual  kingdom  of  her  Lord  as  well  in  connection  with 
the  State  as  apart  from  the  State,  it  was  her  duty  to 
part.  "  It  is  willingly  conceded,"  he  had  said,  "  that 
Christ's  Church  or  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,  but  is 
purely  spiritual,  and  that,  if  it  can  be  proved  that  union 
or  connection  between  Church  and  State,  of  any  kind  or 
in  any  degree,  necessarily  implies  the  headship  over  the 
Church  of  any  other  than  Jesus  Christ  Himself, — the 
subtraction  of  any  of  the  privileges  conferred  by  Christ 
on  the  office-bearers  or  members  of  His  Church,  or  the 
imposition  of  any  restraint  upon  them  in  the  discharge 
of  any  of  their  duties, — all  such  union  or  connection  is 
unlainful."  Such,  to  the  Voluntaries  on  this  hand,  and 
to  Erastians  of  every  tint  and  of  every  name  on  that, 
was  Cunningham's  declaration  on  the  eve  of  the  conflict. 


CHAPTEE  X. 
C^afmerg  at  nTorft, 

WHO  in  those  days  was  a  more  hopeful,  happy  man 
than  Chahners  ?  When  we  think  of  him,  the 
solemn  gladness  of  those  psalms,  in  which  either  the 
Shepherd-mmstrel  himself,  or  the  nameless  Beethovens 
and  Haydns  of  the  old  Hebrew  Church,  expressed  the 
music  of  their  w^alk  with  God,  recurs  to  us.  He  rejoiced 
like  a  strong  man  to  run  his  race,  treading  like  the  sun 
as  it  mounts  the  sky,  and  feeling  the  pleasure  of  the 
Lord  prospering  in  his  hand.  The  Church — the  Estab- 
lished Church  —  had  set  herself  right.  The  flock 
w^as  delivered  from  hireling  shepherds,  and  the  true 
brothers  of  the  Presbyterian  pastorate,  who  had  been 
sent  to  the  tents  of  Kedar — the  ecclesiastical  Coventry 
— of  chapel  ministration,  were  raised  to  the  seats  of 
honour, — no  mere  street  preachers,  but  fully  equipped 
elders  to  judge  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel. 

Can  we  wonder  tliat  Chabners  should  believe,  say  in 
1835,  when  the  resurgent  Church  had  passed  those 
measures  of  legislative  reform,  that  he  was  in  a  fair  way 
to   wipe  the  Last  stain  of  infidel  or  dissident  reproach 


76  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

from  the  brow  of  the  Scottish  Estabhshment,  and  that 
he  felt  confidence  in  the  willingness  of  the  State  to 
co-operate  with  the  Church  in  what  he  viewed  as  their 
joint  work  of  Ijenefiting  the  people  of  Scotland  ?  It  is  most 
instructive,  and  it  is,  we  must  add,  profoundly  pathetic, 
to  behold  this  strong  Churchman  straining  his  energies 
to  the  utmost  to  demonstrate,  by  the  final  testimony 
of  experience,  that  a  rejuvenescent  Church  could  find 
favour  in  the  eyes  of  British  statesmen.  If  ever  man 
believed  in  the  theoretic  and  practical  feasibility  of  the 
express  association  of  religious  institutions  and  political 
institutions  in  promoting  the  health  and  wealth  of 
nations,  it  was  he. 

The  problem  he  now  grappled  with  was  Church  Ex- 
tension. In  urging  it  forward,  he  appealed  not  only  to 
Christian  principles,  but  to  the  evidence  of  his  eyes.  His 
idiosyncrasy,  be  it  remembered,  was  the  combination, 
perhaps  unique,  of  an  impetuosity  of  spiritual  ardour  com- 
parable to  that  of  St.  Paul,  with  a  utilitarianism  as  cool, 
circumspect,  and  thorough  -  going  as  that  of  Jeremy 
Bentham.  He  once  expressed  to  a  bosom  friend  grave 
and  depressing  doubts  as  to  the  real  use  and  benefit  of 
those  splendid  exhibitions  of  pulpit  eloquence  which  were 
filling  the  world  with  his  fame ;  l)ut  he  exulted  in  the 
confidence  that  he  was  making  a  right  and  fruitful  use 
of  his  faculties  when  he  trod  the  slums  of  Glasgow,  the 
auxiliary  of  the  policeman,  bringing  celestial  fire  to 
irradiate  their  darkness,  and  superseding  both  policeman 
and  relieving  officer  by  the  unbought  ministrations  of 
Christian  charity,  quickening  into  development  every  germ 
of  self-help,  e^•ery  dormant  energy  of  family  affection. 


CHALMERS  AT  WOK  A'.  77' 

Apply,  then,  lie  now  in  many  accents  impatiently 
cried,  this  experience  to  the  State.  Was  it  not 
palpable  that  the  people  so  operated  on  were  like  to 
be  better  subjects,  more  law-abiding,  less  turbulent,  less 
criminal,  less  pauperised,  than  if  left  in  heathenish 
irreligion  ?  Could  any  man  deny  that  "  a  depraved 
commonalty  is  the  teeming  source  of  all  moral  and 
political  disorder "  ?  This  he  expected  statesmen  to 
admit,  when  he  appealed  to  them  to  promote  Church 
extension. 

He  proposed  that  over -peopled  parishes  should  be 
subdivided  into  manageable  districts ;  that  in  each  of 
these  districts  there  should  be  erected  "  an  economical 
church,"  so  economical  that  the  sittings,  if  rented  at  all, 
might  be  let  cheaply  enough  to  admit  attendance  by  the 
humblest  classes.  The  Church  was  ready  with  "  talented 
and  well-disposed  licentiates,  alive  to  the  great  moral 
necessities  of  our  land,  and  resolved  to  enter  with  the 
full  consecration  of  their  powers  and  opportunities  on 
that  high  walk  of  philanthropy,  whose  object  is  to  re- 
claim those  degenerate  outcasts  who  have  so  multiplied 
in  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  beyond  the  means  of 
Christian  instruction." 

What  of  endowment  ?  That  was  a  matter  that  re- 
quired to  be  thought  of.  With  characteristic  regard  to 
their  ow^n  interests,  the  heritors,  who  by  ancient  arrange- 
ment ought  to  have  borne  at  least  part  of  the  charge, 
had  applied  to  Parliament  for  protection  to  their  pockets. 
Statesmen  had  been  willing  enough  to  listen  to  them. 
"  A  recent  Act "  had  screened  them  from  liability  in 
connection    with   the   new   territorial   churches.      There 


/  8  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

remained  "  the  liberality  of  the  patriotic  and  the  good," 
in  short,  the  voluntary  system  without  the  big  V, 
to  fall  back  upon,  and  these  made  generous  response  to 
the  appeal  of  Chalmers.  But  he  did  not  forget  that  he 
was  working  for  the  poor.  They  little  know  this  man 
who  imagine  that,  if  he  had  obtained  money  enough  to 
decorate  the  towns  and  enliven  the  parishes  of  Scotland 
with  handsome  churches,  filled  with  rich  and  fashionable 
congregations,  he  would  have  attained  his  object  or  reaped 
his  reward.  High  steeples,  advertising  crack  preachers 
to  attract  hearers  from  miles  or  leagues  around,  on  the 
system  which  has  since  been  so  brilliantly  developed 
in  London  and  elsewhere,  would  have  been  looked  on  by 
him  with  small  enthusiasm.  Valuing  at  all  times  and  in 
all  places  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  he  was  not  bent 
only  on  preaching.  "  In  this  way,"  he  wrote,  "  there 
would  be  no  increase  in  the  amount  of  Christian  instruc- 
tion in  the  country,  but  only  a  transference  of  hearers 
from  one  place  to  another, — a  building  up  of  new  at  the 
expense  of  old  congregations.  It  would  but  make  a  new 
distribution  of  hearers  among  people  who  already  hear 
somewhere."  It  was  not  as  a  thing  of  ornament,  but  as 
a  thing  of  use,  that  this  man  contemplated  the  parochial 
system.  "  The  great  thing  wanted  is,  that  the  thousands 
now  living  in  practical  heathenism,  and  who  at  present 
hear  nowhere,  shall  be  reclaimed  to  the  decencies  of  a 
Christian  land ;  and  this  can  only  be  done  by  planting 
churches  with  low  seat-rents  in  the  midst  of  these  people, 
giving  them  a  preference  above  all  others  to  the  sittings 
in  their  own  local  churches,  and  making  it  the  distinct 
business  of  the  newly-endowed  ministers,  each  to  culti- 


CHALMERS  AT  WORK.  79 

vate,  and  as  much  as  possible  confine  himself  to,  the 
households  of  his  own  assigned  locality.  In  this  way- 
altogether  new  ground  will  be  entered  upon ;  a  real 
movement  in  advance  will  be  made  among  a  heretofore 
neglected  population.  Christian  instruction  will  be  let 
down  to  the  poorest  of  our  families ;  and  our  Establish- 
ment, if  extended  in  this  way,  will  become,  and  at  a  very 
cheap  rate,  an  effective  home-mission  in  favour  of  those 
whose  thorough  moral  and  Christian  education,  both 
piety  and  the  public  good  so  loudly  demand." 

The  authority  of  the  State  in  measuring  out  areas  for 
the  territorial  churches,  and  an  extremely  limited  grant 
of  money  in  each  case,  say  £100,  just  sufficient  to  secure 
that  there  should  be  sittings  accessible  to  the  poorest 
self-sustaining  parishioners, — such  was  the  modest  request 
of  Chalmers  and  the  awakening  Church  to  that  State 
which  was  supposed  to  bestow  upon  her  inestimable 
advantage  in  their  joint  labour  of  promoting  Christian 
instruction  in  Scotland.     What  was  the  reply  ? 

At  first  there  had  been  some  encouraging  symptoms 
on  the  part  of  the  Government.  The  Melbourne  Cabinet 
had  given  a  courteous  hearing  to  a  deputation  from  Edin- 
])urgh,  that  came  to  London  to  plead  for  the  scheme  in 
1834.  The  Whig  phalanx,  that  seemed  unassailable 
after  the  passing  of  the  great  Keform  Bill,  had  even  then 
begun  to  waver  under  the  skilful  attacks  of  Peel,  and  was 
driven  from  office  in  that  year.  But  it  was  against  his 
own  judgment  as  a  parliamentary  tactician  that  Sir  Eobert 
liad  pressed  his  advantage  so  far,  and  the  consequent  rally 
of  his  opponents  and  partial  reattainment  of  popularity 
placed  them  more  firmly  in  their  seats  than  before. 


8Q  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Meanwhile  Chalmers  had  been  at  work.  Engaged  at 
one  and  the  same  tune  in  fiercest  battle  with  controversial 
foes,  and  in  pushing  on  the  Church's  part  of  the  Exten- 
sion Scheme,  he  had  issued  four  pamplilets  in  one  month 
as  successive  blows  to  strike  down  the  hydra-heads  of 
opposition,  and  had  splendidly  succeeded  in  the  construct- 
ive part  of  his  enterprise.  In  the  General  Assembly  of 
1835  he  announced  what  had  been  done.  Sixty-four 
new  churches  had  in  one  year  been  added  to  the  Estab- 
lishment, "  about  as  many  as  the  whole  preceding  century 
had  given  birth  to,"  and  upwards  of  sixty-five  thousand 
pounds  had  been  contributed  in  cash. 

The  session  of  Assembly  ended,  Chalmers  hunself, 
heading  a  deputation,  proceeded  to  London.  Whether 
it  was  that  Lord  Melbourne  and  Lord  John  Paissell  were 
now  more  stably  seated  in  office,  or  whether  the  hydra- 
heads  of  opposition,  smitten  in  Edinburgh  by  four 
pamphlets  in  one  month,  had  reappeared  and  been 
potently  at  work  in  London,  a  change  had  come  to 
pass.  Lord  Melbourne  was  oppressively  apathetic. 
Lord  John  Russell  was  sententious,  guarded,  prepared 
to  maintain  State  Establishments  of  rehgion,  but  ex- 
tremely calm  on  the  subject  of  Church  Extension.  The 
Government,  they  were  told,  had  resolved  to  issue  a 
Eoyal  Commission  of  Inquiry  to  investigate  the  subject. 
That  was  all.  For  the  fiery  champion  of  State  Chiu-ches 
it  was  a  bath  of  snow-water.  Where  was  that  loyalty 
to  the  Church's  primary  duty  of  bringing  Christ's  gospel 
to  the  poor,  which  he  had  looked  for  from  states- 
men ?  In  his  disenchantment  he  turned  with  his  depu- 
tation, if  not  for  help,  at  least  for  solace,  to  the  Tories. 


CHALMERS  AT  WORK.  81 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  the  Duke  of  "Wellington,  "  you  will 
get  nothing.  That  is  my  opinion.  I  am  sorry  for  it, 
but  so  you  will  find  it." 

The  supercilious  apathy  of  Melbourne  and  the  placid 
languor  of  Lord  John,  followed  by  the  issue  of  a  highly- 
unsatisfactory  Commission  of  Inquiry,  stirred  the  spirit 
of  Chalmers,  and  drew  from  him  a  letter  to  the  Whig 
Prime  Minister,  marked  by  all  his  ardour  in  the  sacred 
cause  of  the  poor,  and  evincing  the  penetrating  power 
of  his  logic  to  pierce  through  shams  into  the  heart  of 
things.  He  told  Melbourne  that  the  indifference  of  the 
Administration  to  the  extension  of  Christian  instruction 
among  unprovided  populations  betrayed  a  lurking  belief 
that  the  instruction,  where  provided,  was  not  worth 
much,  and  that  "  little  or  no  evil  would  result  on  the 
departure  of  Christianity  and  all  its  services  from  the 
land."  Such  a  sentiment,  he  indignantly  exclaims, 
"  stamps  a  nullity  on  the  gospel,  and  an  utter  insigni- 
ficance on  the  vocation  of  its  ministers."  Thus  wrote 
Chalmers  more  than  fifty  years  ago.  As  we  read  the 
words  to-day,  is  there  not  something  tragic  in  their 
sound  ?  How  palpably — with  ever-accelerating  speed — 
has  the  current  of  opinion  in  Cabinets  and  Parliaments 
since  then  been  towards  depreciation  of  the  value  of 
"  Christianity  and  all  its  services "  !  Herein  lies,  in 
fact,  the  essential  difficulty,  always  making  the  friction 
greater,  that  has  emerged  in  the  practical  carrying  on 
of  the  alhance  between  Church  and  State.  The  State 
of  old  valued  the  Church  for  the  sake  of  the  Church's 
work.  The  governing  classes  in  Lord  ]\Icll)o\u'ne's  days 
had  begun  to  be  profoundly  indifferent  to-  the  Church's 
6 


82  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

duties  as  such,  and  scepticism  was  stealing  upon  their 
minds  as  to  whether  even  the  indirect  and  educa- 
tional uses  of  the  Church  were  w^orth  taking  trouble 
about. 

In  the  constitution  of  the  Royal  Commission  of  In- 
quiry issued  by  the  Llelbourne  Government,  Chalmers 
proceeded  to  point  out,  there  did  not  appear  the  smallest 
consideration  of  what  was  due  to  the  Church  as  an 
independent  spiritual  power,  co-operating  with  the  State 
on  terms  of  mutual  loyalty  for  a  common  object.  The 
names  of  such  men,  in  the  next  place,  as  were  familiar 
with  the  want  of  religious  teaching  in  the  crowded 
towns  of  Scotland,  and  in  whom  the  Church  could 
trust,  Monteith,  Spiers,  Dunlop,  were  absent.  The 
selected  Commissioners,  deficient  in  all  requisite  quali- 
fications, had  been  put  in  "  at  the  instigation  of  their 
patrons  or  political  friends."  The  Scottish  Church 
was  a  fellow  -  worker  with  the  State  in  the  cause  of 
Christ  and  the  people,  not  on  slavish  and  humiliat- 
mg,  but  on  honourable  and  equal  conditions ;  and  the 
terms  in  which  this  Commission  was  drafted  evinced 
ignorance,  said  Chalmers,  "  of  the  fundamental  principle 
of  our  Presbyterian  Establishment,"  or  else  a  "  purpose 
to  offer  it  violence."  Had  the  Commissioners  been  of 
the  right  kind,  the  Church  might  have  felt  no  alarm  as 
to  "  transgression  bemg  made  on  the  line  of  demarcation 
between  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical ; "  but,  the  Com- 
missioners bemg  hostile,  and  their  instructions  "  loose 
and  unguarded,"  the  Churchmen  of  Scotland  might  well 
apprehend  that  their  "  most  sacred  principles "  would 
be  slighted.      And  then,  for  the  benefit  and  illumination 


CHALMERS  AT  WORK.  83 

of  all  those  Melbournes,  Eussells,  and  Peels  who  might 
henceforward  have  any  special  dealings  with  the  Church, 
lie  went  into  a  statement  of  what  had  always  been 
and  would  always  be,  an  inexorable  condition  of  his 
championship  of  State-Churchism.  "  We  do  not  acknow- 
ledge," he  exclaimed,  "  the  King  to  be  the  head  of 
the  Church ;  and  this  independence  of  the  ecclesiastical 
upon  the  civil  was  conceded  to  us  at  the  Eevolution, 
after  we  had  sustained  many  and  grievous  persecutions 
in  defence  of  it,  and  since  guaranteed  at  the  period  of 
the  Union  between  the  two  kingdoms.  We  do  not 
admit  the  subordination  of  the  Church  to  the  State  in 
things  which  are  strictly  and  properly  ecclesiastical ;  or 
that  we  are  responsible  to  any  tribunal  on  earth  for 
the  discharge  and  exercise  of  our  spiritual  functions." 
Spiritual  independence  he  signahsed  as  "  the  dearest 
and  most  hallowed  of  our  principles,"  and  prophesied 
that,  if  encroachment  were  made  upon  it,  many  thousands 
of  those  Scotchmen  who  were  "  still  attached  to  the 
tabernacles  of  their  fathers "  would  make  knowm  their 
resentment. 

Does  the  reader  now  expect  to  be  told  that  Chalmers 
Hung  the  Commission  of  Inquiry  in  Lord  Melbourne's 
face,  and  called  upon  the  clergy  and  people  of  Scotland 
to  submit  to  no  examination  as  to  the  religious  state  of 
parishes  by  emissaries  of  the  Civil  Power  ?  There  seem 
to  have  been  not  a  few  in  Scotland  who  were  prepared 
for  this  course.  The  agitation  was  deeply  felt  throughout 
the  country.  A  special  meeting  of  the  Comnnssion  of 
the  General  Assembly  was  called  to  consider  the  question 
of  how  the  privileges  of  the  Church  might  be  guarded. 


84  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

One  particularly  excited  gentleman  deserves  special 
notice.  Mr.  John  Hope,  Dean  of  Faculty,  apparently 
outstripping  Dunlop  himself  in  Presbyterian  zeal,  wrote 
to  Chalmers  entreating  him  to  raise  his  voice,  "  as  our 
firm  and  well-tried  Presbyterian  champion,"  agamst  "  this 
most  flagrant  outrage."  Mr.  Hope  pronounced  the 
Government  inquiry  "  destructive  of  the  principle  and 
independence  of  Presbytery,"  and  described  the  occasion 
as  "  the  commencement  of  the  final  fight  for  our  Church." 
But  Chalmers  combined  the  wisdom  and  self-command 
of  Ulysses  with  the  moral  passion  and  the  voice 
of  Achilles.  He  was  to  be  moved  from  the  stabihty 
of  his  intellectual  judgment  neither  by  the  whirlblast 
of  popular  enthusiasm  nor  by  the  seductive  flatteries 
of  the  Presbyterian  lawyer.  Calmly  studying  the 
terms  of  the  Commission,  he  perceived  that,  however 
"  loose "  they  might  be,  they  did  not  necessarily 
carry  the  tyrannical  sense  fixed  upon  them  by  the 
Dean.  Lord  John  Eussell  wrote  also  a  timeous  letter 
to  Lord  Minto,  which  served,  says  Dr.  Hanna,  "  entu'ely 
to  remove  "  the  misapprehension  caused  by  the  language 
of  the  Commission.  And,  let  us  add, — as  perhaps  the 
most  important  element  in  the  business, — Chalmers's  own 
practical  instinct  reminded  him,  on  second  thoughts,  that 
if  two  co-ordinate  powers.  Church  and  State,  were  to 
work  harmoniously  together,  it  was,  by  the  nature  of  the 
case,  requisite  and  reasonable  that  they  should  give  full 
explanation,  information,  and  general  furtherance  to  each 
other.  Having  protested,  therefore,  against  both  the 
wording  and  the  manning  of  the  Whig  Commission,  he 
nevertheless    advised    the    Church,    throughout   all    her 


CHALMERS  AT  WORK.  85 

parishes,  to  welcome  the  Commissioners,  and  show  them 
tlrnt  the  poor  were  hungering  for  a  more  Hberal  supply 
of  the  bread  of  life.  "  I  will  submit  to  any  aflront,"  he 
said,  "  rather  than  that  the  cause  should  suffer  from  any 
want  of  willing  co-operation  which  I  can  possibly  render 
to  it.  I  look  for  many  disagreeables  in  consequence  of 
these  appomtments  ;  but  I  will  brook  anything  rather 
than  give  up  the  object  of  a  Christian  education  for  the 
common  people."  There  is  in  all  this  a  chivalrous  fidelity 
to  honour,  an  intrepid  acceptance  of  light  up  to  the 
measure  of  its  dawning,  a  truth  to  one's  self  and  one's 
God,  that  amounts  to  a  sterling  consistency,  better  than 
the  nicest  fitting  of  cog  to  tooth  and  tooth  to  cog,  round 
the  whole  commonplace  wheel  of  life. 

May  we  not  say  that  some  strange  fatality,  some 
singular  infatuation,  some  curious  maladjustment  of 
circumstances  or  malignity  of  human  spite,  could  alone 
bring  it  about  that  such  a  man  should,  within  a  few 
years,  have  come  to  believe  himself  absolutely  bound 
by  his  duty  to  Christ  to  bid  the  Church  of  Scotland 
separate  from  the  State  ? 

One  thing  above  all  others  it  is  well  for  us  to  observe 
in  connection  with  this  letter  of  Dean  of  Faculty  Hope's 
to  Chalmers,  that  it  was  the  lawyer,  not  the  divine,  who 
exhibited  a  sensitive  jealousy  as  to  the  right  of  the 
clergy  not  to  be  inspected  in  the  discharge  of  their 
teaching  and  preaching  functions.  Chalmers  had  no  in- 
superable qualms  about  the  sacrosanct  character  of  the 
clergy.  He  may  feel  his  Presbyterian  principles  more 
keenly  roused  when  it  is  the  rights  of  the  people  that 
are  menaced ! 


86  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Meanwhile,  be  it  accurately  understood  why  and  for 
what  causes  this  impassioned  advocate  valued  Church 
Establishments.  It  was  not  because  he  supposed  the 
Almighty  to  liold  Himself  more  honoured  by  having  His 
name  blazoned  on  political  institutions  than  on  the  hearts 
of  nations.  The  national  recognition  of  God  by  atheistic 
Governments  he  would  have  pronounced  a  blasphemous 
sham.  It  was  not  because  he  wished  to  cripple  the 
operation,  in  proper  circumstances,  of  Nonconformist 
preachers,  or  to  bar  their  attracting  audiences  from  all 
parts  of  the  compass,  or  from  any  extent  of  area.  The 
more  he  saw  of  pulpit  power,  exerted  in  the  name  of 
Christ,  the  more  cordially  was  he  gratified.  The  traditions 
of  the  Scottish  EvangeHcal  party — the  Andrew  Thomson 
party — were  entirely  in  favour  of  generous  appreciation 
of  Nonconformist  Christianity,  and  the  recognition  by  the 
Establishment  of  the  yeoman  service  rendered  by  such 
outfield  workers  as  Wardlaw  and  M'Crie. 

Chalmers  valued  Establishment  because  he  held  that, 
in  order  to  bring  Christian  ministrations  to  the  bedside 
of  the  poor  in  congested  districts,  and  to  enable  the 
poorest  of  them  to  attend  the  public  ordinances  of 
religion,  it  was  necessary  to  divide  large  areas  into 
limited  districts,  to  assign  a  minister  to  each,  and  to 
secure  that  sittings  in  territorial  churches  should  be 
practically  free.  His  own  Church  Extension  Scheme  fur- 
nished a  magnificent  attestation  of  his  faith  in  voluntary 
effort.  It  was  based  mainly  upon  voluntary  effort. 
Only  the  stretching  out  of  the  little  finger  of  the  State 
did  he  ask  for,  to  supplement  the  free-will  offerings  of 
the  Christian  people,  and   to  supplement  them    in    the 


CHALMERS  AT  WORK,  87 

interest  of  the  poor.  And  when  the  people,  like  all 
peoples,  ancient  and  modern,  really  in  earnest  about 
religion,  made  generous  response  to  his  appeal,  the  State 
treated  his  adored  Church  as  an  Indian  village  treats 
the  old  used-up  cow  that  yields  milk  no  longer,  and 
which,  though  they  do  not  lay  a  hand  on  it,  they  turn 
out  to  die  in  the  meadow,  indifferent  whether  the 
vultures  tear  it  or  no !  The  day  of  the  vultures  is 
certainly  not  yet ;  but  can  the  most  imaginative  of 
readers  fancy  that  our  lynx-eyed  Presbyterian  Dean  will 
turn  out  to  be  at  the  head  of  them  ? 

The  Commissioners  visited  the  parishes,  pocketed  their 
wages,  and  went  their  way.  And  nothing  came  of  it. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington  was  a  true  prophet :  "  Gentle- 
men, you  will  get  nothing." 


CHAriER  XI. 

TN  the  same  summer  in  which  he  dealt  so  manfully, 
J-  so  magnanimously,  and  so  hopelessly  with  Lord 
Melbourne,  Dr.  Chalmers  visited  Oxford.  It  was  a 
change,  for  a  few  halcyon  days,  from  solemn  work  to  not 
ignoble  play.  Always  ardently  scientific,  well  informed 
in  geology,  and  intrepid  in  his  conviction  that  no  evil 
could  come  to  the  truth  or  to  the  Church  from  a  recog- 
nition  of  facts  ascertained  by  research,  he  had  been 
elected  a  Fellow  and  Vice  -  President  of  the  Eoyal 
Society  of  Edinburgh,  and  was  also,  by  election,  a 
Correspondmg  Member  of  the  Royal  Institute  of  France. 
He  now,  in  1835,  received  an  intimation  from  Oxford, 
that  at  the  approaching  Annual  Commemoration  the 
University  intended  to  confer  upon  him  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Laws.  With  the  simplicity  of  a  guileless 
nature,  too  great  to  disguise  its  honest  pride,  he  owned 
his  surprise  and  delight.  "  I  have  long,"  he  wrote  in 
reply,  "  had  the  utmost  affection  and  reverence  for  the 
University  of  Oxford,  but  I  never  once  dreamed  of  the 
possibility  of  in  any  manner  being  admitted  within  its 

88 


CHALMERS  AT  PLAY.  89 

pale."  In  the  presence  of  a  brilliant  throng  he  was  in- 
vested with  the  honour  conferred  upon  him,  and  addressed 
in  sonorous  Latin  as  a  paragon  of  benignity,  learning, 
and  eloquence,  a  strenuous  and  compassionate  advocate 
of  the  poor,  and  ecclesice  Scoticce  acerrimus  propugnator, 
ecclesicc  Anglicanm  quoque,  idqiie  duhiis  et  formidolosis 
temporihus,  gravissimiis  vindex, — the  keenest  champion  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  also,  and  that  in  doubtful 
and  alarming  times,  a  most  powerful  defender  of  the 
Church  of  England.  Three  times  in  the  course  of  the 
Latin  panegyric  did  the  assembled  gownsmen  of  Oxford 
University  make  the  roof  ring  with  their  acclamations. 

"  The  most  interesting  introduction  which  I  have  had 
in  Oxford,"  wrote  Chalmers  to  his  friend.  Lady  Stuart, 
"  is  to  Keble  the  poet,  author  of  the  Christian  Year,  a 
work  of  exquisite  beauty,  and  most  worthy  of  your  per- 
sonal, nay,  of  your  daily  companionship,  if  you  have  not 
yet  admitted  it  into  your  cabinet."  In  that  year  there 
were  not  many  in  England,  to  say  nothing  of  Presbyterian 
Scotland,  who  could  speak  of  daily  companionship  with 
Keble's  poetry.  And  it  was  of  this  man  that  Carlyle, 
in  the  latest  stage  of  his  decadence,  spoiling  by  the 
ugly  sting  at  the  end  what  would  otherwise  have  been 
a  fine  and  cordial  eulogium  on  Chalmers,  could  speak  as 
"  ill  read"  and  "  ignorant  of  all  that  lay  beyond  the 
horizon  in  place  or  in  time." 

In  this  Oxford  visit  there  was  one  cloud  that  cast 
momentarily  its  shadow  on  Chahners.  "  The  only  ex- 
pression of  regret,"  wrote  a  friend  who  was  much  with 
him  in  Oxford,  "  which  fell  from  him  in  my  hearing 
during    the   course   of   his   visit,   had   reference    to    the 


90  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

reserve  which  characterised,  as  he  thought,  the  manner 
of  some  eminent  men  connected  with  a  certain  theo- 
logical party  to  whom  he  was  introduced,  and  which 
prevented  hmi  from  touching,  in  conversation  with  them, 
upon  topics  of  the  highest  import,  with  the  frank  and 
genial  earnestness  which  was  natural  to  him."  The 
reference  obviously  is  to  that  famed  party  whose  history, 
from  that  year  until  now,  has  been  the  history  of  High 
Church  life  and  thought,  and,  to  no  inconsiderable  extent, 
of  theological  and  humanitarian  literature,  in  England. 
Mind  and  heart  linger  on  the  juxtaposition,  at  Oxford, 
of  Chalmers  and  Newman.  Of  how  much  were  they 
tlie  antithetically  contrasted  and  antagonist  types ! 
Simple  Chalmers,  the  kindly,  unsophisticated  Scot,  who 
saw  through  a  medium  of  illusion  everything  called  Chris- 
tian, and  sang  the  praises  of  the  Anglican  Establishment 
as  a  bulwark  of  Protestantism.  Newman  would  hardly 
have  granted  him  the  Christian  name.  But  Chalmers  w^as 
right  in  thinking  that  there  were  mighty  elements  in 
the  Church  of  England  that  sympathised  with  him, — far 
mightier  than  those  represented  by  Newman.  Chalmers 
stood  for  the  religion  of  men  ;  Newman,  for  that  of  priests. 
The  one  represented  the  universal  Christian  priesthood ; 
the  other,  a  mystically  endowed  sacerdotal  caste.  It  may 
seem  a  startling  statement,  but  the  historical  evidence 
of  its  truth  is  absolutely  overwhelming,  that,  probably 
from  a  time  prior  to  the  Reformation,  and  certainly  from 
the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth  until  Chalmers  and 
Newman  were  in  Oxford  together  in  1835,  the  religion  of 
the  great  body  of  Englishmen  has  been  the  religion  of 
Chalmers,  not  of  Newman.      There  is  much   religion  in 


CHALMERS  AT  PLAY.  91 

Shakespeare;  there  is  no  sacerdotalism.  Wydiffe,  Milton, 
Bunyan,  "Whitfield,  Wesley,  Wilberforce,  Shaftesbury, 
Spurgeon,  stand  one  and  all  on  the  religion  of  Chalmers, 
as  against  the  religion  of  Newman.  Young  men  of  re- 
ligious susceptibility,  young  women  of  cloistral  tempera- 
ment, adored  Newman.  But  the  people  of  England  knew 
him  not.  It  was  very  doubtful  then,  and  it  is  perhaps 
doubtful  now,  whether,  if  we  look  to  essentials  and  not 
circmnstantials,  there  is  not  more  of  Presbyterianism 
than  of  Newmauism  in  the  Church  of  England.  Had 
Newman  been  in  touch  with  the  Bible  Christianity 
of  the  Enghsh  people,  as  Chalmers  was  in  touch  with 
the  Bible  religion  of  the  Scottish  people,  how  different 
the  issue  might  have  been  !  The  Enghsh  people  fear  to  see 
their  Church  free  and  self-governing,  because  they  have 
an  invincible  suspicion  that  the  Church  means  the  clergy, 
and  that  the  clergy  aspire  to  be  a  priestly  caste.  The 
Anglican  clergy  have  never  been  leaders  of  the  people. 
But  Chalmers  woidd  have  assented,  with  a  fervency 
that  few  Anglican  clergymen  or  Anglican  laymen  can 
reahse,  to  Newman's  solemn  conviction,  impUed  in  his 
celebrated  utterance  as  he  passed  beyond  the  threshold 
of  tlie  Church  of  England,  that  the  Church  of  Christ  is 
no  mere  national  or  political  institution.  The  Church  of 
the  people  in  Scotland  took  over,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
from  the  Church  of  Eome,  all  the  genuine  rights,  liberties, 
and  powers  of  the  Church  of  Christ ;  and  since  then,  hi 
proportion  to  their  zeal  for  Christ,  have  the  clergy  been 
Scottish  patriots  and  tribunes  of  the  common  people. 


CHAPTEE  XII. 
€^e  (Ueeurgenf  C^urc^— ^^e  ^u^^en  ^form— 

rpiMES  were  changed  in  Scotland.  The  Church  had 
-*-  been  dead  and  was  ahve  agam.  The  moral  atmo- 
sphere was  no  longer  one  of  slumbrous  indifference. 
That  wave  of  EvangeHcal  rehgion,  sneered  at  considerably 
by  philosophic  personages  for  other-worldluiess,  but  privi- 
leged by  virtue  of  its  zeal  against  slavery,  its  opposition 
to  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts,  its  war  against  the 
cruelties  of  the  old  criminal  jurisprudence,  its  victorious 
attacks  upon  tyrannic  covetousness  in  mine  and  factory, 
to  do  a  grand  spell  of  God's  work  for  this  world,  had 
come  streaming  into  the  Church  of  Scotland.  The 
Scottish  people,  quickly  responsive  as  they  had  been  at 
all  periods  of  their  history  to  any  thrill  of  new  spiritual 
life,  any  breath  of  returning  inspiration  in  their  Church, 
beheld  with  admiring  sympathy  the  advance  of  the  re- 
forming impulse.  They  rejoiced  to  see  their  Church 
exercising  those  rights  of  expansion,  those  rights  of 
adjustment  to  changing  circumstances,  those  rights  of 
bringing  into  action  principles  that  had  fallen  into  abey- 

02 


THE  RESURGENT  CHURCH THE  SUDDEN  STORM.       93 

ance,  which  were  all  included  in  the  right  to  life,  received 
from  Christ,  and  implied,  as  no  one  yet  appeared  to  dis- 
pute, in  the  union  between  Church  and  State  in  Scotland. 
If  Whigs  were  arid  to  Chalmers,  and  if  Tories  gave  him 
cold  comfort,  the  Scottish  people  backed  him  bravely  in 
his  Church  Extension  Scheme.  We  spoke  of  the  first 
ingathering  of  the  goodwill  offerings  of  the  faithful. 
But  contributions  to  the  extent  of  £305,747,  and  two 
hundred  and  twenty  -  two  churches  planted  throughout 
Scotland  where  need  was  greatest,  gradually  proved  to  this 
champion  of  Establishments  that  something  might  be  done, 
after  all,  by  the  voluntary  principle.  The  just  reproach 
against  a  Presbyterian  Church,  that  it  had  let  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  parity  among  the  ministerial  brother- 
hood be  violated  wholesale,  was  removed  by  admission  of 
the  chapel  muiisters  to  complete  Presbyterian  equality. 
The  right  to  have  no  pastor  forced  upon  them  against 
their  will,  a  right  inexpressibly  dear  to  the  pious  farmers 
and  cottagers  of  Scotland,  was  secured  by  the  Veto  Act. 
The  exclusive  spirit  of  the  previous  century  had  decreed, 
"by  an  Act  of  Assembly  passed  in  1799,"  that  no 
minister  of  any  other  Church  should  occupy  a  pulpit  of 
the  Establishment.  This  decree  was  now  swept  away. 
The  Presbyterians  of  England  and  of  Ireland  were 
welcomed  to  full  connnunion.  A  body  of  seceders  re- 
entered the  Church. 

VitaHsed  at  home,  the  Church  put  forth  new  energy 
in  the  task  of  preaching  Christ  abroad.  Dr.  Duff  had 
appeared  in  the  Assembly,  and  in  brilliantly  eloquent 
language,  amid  the  passionate  sympathy  of  his  audience, 
called  upon  his  brethren  to  aid  him  in  conquering  India 


94  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

for  Christ.  A  new  scheme  was  devised  for  Ijringing 
Christ's  Hebrew  brethren  according  to  the  flesh  to  join 
the  Christian  Israel.  In  one  word,  the  Church — clergy 
and  laity  alike — was  tingling  with  the  keen  activities  of 
rejuvenescence,  glowing  with  the  ardours  and  enthusiasms 
of  reinforced  vitality,  from  shore  to  shore  of  Scotland. 
Taking,  in  compliment  to  a  mechanical  age,  the  rude 
standards  of  coined  money  and  stone  walls,  we  find  the 
progress  of  the  reforming  movement,  during  the  few 
years  of  Evangelical  ascendancy,  registered  in  an  increase, 
fourteenfold,  of  the  Church's  freewill  offerings  in  the 
service  of  her  Lord. 

Can  it,  as  a  matter  of  common  sense,  apart  from  any 
question  of  special  Divine  right,  be  pretended  that  this 
renascence  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  exceeded  the 
natural,  normal  play  of  that  freedom  which,  for  all 
organised  societies,  is  a  condition  of  life  ?  Might  not 
any  professional  association — the  medical,  for  example — 
complain  of  tyrannical  oppression  if  not  allowed  to 
regulate  its  membership  on  principles  believed  by  it  to 
be  essential  to  the  art  of  healing  ?  Surely  we  can 
return  but  one  answer  to  these  questions ;  and  yet  the 
time  was  at  hand  when  the  impassioned  energy  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  in  aiming  at  the  realisation  of  her 
heavenly  ideal,  was  to  bring  upon  her  rebuke  and  tribu- 
lation, and  when  the  rays  of  her  resurrection  glory  were 
to  be  scornfully  disowned  and  shred  away. 

Soon  after  the  passing  of  the  Veto  Act,  the  Earl  of 
Kinnoull  bestowed  the  presentation  to  the  vacant  parish 
of  Auchterarder  in  Perthshire  upon  Mr.  Eobert  Young. 
When  the  day  came  for  "  moderating  in  a  call,"  or  in- 


THE  RESURGENT  CHURCH — THE  SUDDEN  STORM.      95 

vitation  by  the  congregation  to  the  man  thus  designated 
for  their  pastor,  it  appeared  that,  out  of  three  hundred 
and  thirty  male  heads  of  famihes  in  full  communion, 
just  two  signed  the  call  to  Mr.  Young.  Clearly,  there- 
fore, the  parishioners  did  not  want  hun  for  their  minister. 
But  they  might  conceivably  be  neutral.  They  might  be 
willing,  by  silence,  to  acquiesce  in  the  appointment.  An 
opportunity,  therefore,  was  afforded  them  of  stating 
whether  the  appomtment  was  regarded  by  them  with 
positive  disfavour.  Nearly  three  hundred  now  came 
forward,  and,  in  exercise  of  those  rights  to  repel  intrusion 
which  the  Church  had  conferred  upon  them,  vetoed 
Mr.  Young.  Doing  all  things  leisurely,  the  Presbytery 
gave  the  parishioners  a  fortnight  to  consider  their  de- 
cision. They  remained  of  the  same  mind.  The  presentee 
therefore  was  rejected.  Mr.  Young  demurred,  and  the 
Earl  of  Kinnoul,  though  understood  to  take  no  serious 
interest  in  the  matter  personally,  associated  himself  with 
Mr.  Young  in  turning  to  the  Court  of  Session. 

The  legal  adviser  into  whose  hands  Mr.  Young  put 
himself,  and  by  whom  was  determined  the  manner  in 
which  the  Court  of  Session  should  be  asked  to  coerce 
the  Church  into  intruding  Mr.  Young  into  the  parish  of 
Auchterarder,  was  none  other,  our  readers  will  be  in- 
terested to  learn,  than  Mr.  Hope,  Dean  of  Faculty,  whose 
flaming  zeal  impelled  him  to  appeal  to  Dr.  Chalmers 
when  a  Whig  Commissi(jn  threatened  to  do  violence  to 
the  spiritual  independence  of  the  Church. 

The  Church  of  Scotland  could  not  have  selected  a 
more  favourable  position  in  which  to  fight  her  battle. 
Not  to  ^indicate  any   towering  ecclesiastical  pretension 


96  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

— not  ill  defence  of  any  scheme  of  theological  meta- 
physics —  not  to  extort  new  power,  or  privilege,  or 
dignity,  or  endowment  for  the  clergy — but  to  secure, 
for  poor  country  people,  for  those  rustic  patriarchs, 
and  simple,  prayerful  shepherds  of  whom  Burns  sang 
in  the  Cottars  Saturday  Niyht,  and  whom  Scott  and 
Carlyle  revered,  the  right  to  have  no  man  forced  upon 
them  as  their  minister,  was  the  Church  of  Scotland 
now  called  to  contend.  Round  the  sanctuary  of  the 
peasant  Christian  did  the  Church  range  her  enginery 
of  defence,  and  bare  her  bosom  to  the  blow.  Wound 
him,  she  said,  and  you  strike  a  deadly  blow  at  me ; 
deprive  him  of  that  right  of  signifying  consent  to  the 
appointment  of  his  minister  which  Paul  and  Barnabas 
sanctioned,  and  which  Calvin  recognised,  and  you  break 
the  time-honoured  league  between  Church  and  State  in 
Scotland. 

The  Court  of  Session,  the  supreme  tribunal  in  Scot- 
land in  civil  affairs,  is,  of  course,  guardian  of  all  property, 
and  it  was,  indirectly,  by  a  question  of  property  that 
the  Court  of  Session  was  brought  to  try  conclusions 
with  the  resurgent  Church.  For  all  true-hearted  lawyers, 
property  is  a  sacred  word ;  and  if  the  dominant  lawyers 
of  Scotland  were  led  in  this  matter  into  injustice, 
it  is  charitable  to  suppose  it  was  their  sensitive 
regard  to  property  that  led  them  astray.  Since  the 
day  when  a  settled  ministry  first  came  into  existence, 
long  before  the  time  of  Constantine,  nay,  before  the 
rise  of  the  Church  of  Kome,  delicate  and  difficult 
problems  must  have  arisen  for  solution  in  connection 
with  arrangements  arising  out  of  Church  property.     The 


THE  RESURGENT  CHURCH — THE  SUDDEN  STORM.       97 

lawsuits  of  a  thousand  years  have  been  largely  occupied 
with  adjudication  of  property  dedicated  to  spiritual  uses. 
Property  originally  devised  for  the  benefit  of  souls  has 
come  to  be  w*s-applied  to  countless  purposes  :  the 
providing  of  soldiers  and  revenues  for  kings,  the  furnisli- 
ing  of  nobles  with  estates,  the  enrichment  of  scoundrel 
courtiers,  the  payment  of  royal  mistresses,  the  procure- 
ment of  luxuries,  race-horses,  diamonds,  gold  plate,  for 
the  ott'scouring  of  the  earth. 

As  usual,  the  sure  way  out  of  the  difficulty,  to  which 
recourse  has  almost  ntvcv  been  had,  is  to  follow  the 
Divine  glance  of  Christ  into  the  heart  of  the  matter, 
and  to  put  the  spirit  and  the  life  in  the  first  place, 
and  the  meat  and  the  raiment  in  the  second.  This  rule 
seems  really,  for  a  wonder,  to  have  been  that  which,  with 
creditable  and  exceptional  approximation  to  exactness, 
was  followed  by  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Nursed  among 
storms,  a  child  of  the  hill  and  the  moorland,  she  saw 
greedy  nobles  divide  among  them  the  splendid  posses- 
sions of  the  old  Eomish  Kirk.  No  magnificence  of 
baronial  bishoprics^like  the  £15,000  a  year,  £10,000, 
£5000,  which  make  the  Church  of  England  so  impos- 
ing in  the  eyes  of  statesmen  —  did  she  set  her  heart 
upon.  But,  in  direct  allegiance  to  her  Head,  she  made 
provision  that  the  spirit  and  the  life,  the  preacliing  of 
the  word  and  the  service  of  the  ministry,  should  be 
secured  in  her  parishes.  She  accepted,  as  mere  meat 
and  raiment  for  these,  utterly  subordinate  to  these,  the 
wretched  pittance  of  endowment  which  was  all  the 
niggard  State  allowed  her.  The  pittance,  such  as  it 
was,  could  not,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  time,  be 
7 


98  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

dispensed  with ;  nor  had  any  Protestant  religionists,  at 
the  period  when  the  Scottish  Presbyterian  Chnrch  arose, 
conceived  an  objection  to  friendly  union  and  co-operation 
between  Church  and  State.  The  endowment,  therefore, 
as  in  the  theory  of  all  Protestant  State  Churches,  re- 
mained, strictly  speaking,  the  State's,  or  at  least  under 
the  guardianship  of  the  State,  for  the  spiritual  benefit 
of  the  people.  The  patron  could  not  touch  a  penny 
of  the  benefice.  All  he  could  in  any  case  lose  was  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  some  one  man  of  his  choice  re- 
jected ;  and  he  had  his  remedy  ]jy  naming  another,  and, 
if  necessary,  another  and  another,  until  the  right  man 
was  found.  The  rejected  presentee,  for  his  part,  sup- 
posing him  to  acquiesce  in  his  rejection,  could  lose  no 
more  than  his  presentation  to  this  parish,  —  all  tlie 
vacant  jmrishes  of  the  Church  remained  accessible  to 
him.  But  if  the  parishioners  were  once  forced  to  receive 
a  man  wdio  brought  no  spiritual  life  and  healing  to  their 
souls,  they  might  be  doomed  to  suffer  as  long  as  their 
or  his  mortal  life  endured.  This,  beyond  all  cavil  or 
mystification,  was  the  one  poignant  and  transcendent 
injustice  that  could  occur  in  the  appointment  of  ministers  ; 
and  it  was  for  enacting  that  this  injustice  should  be  made 
impossible,  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  was  called  to 
account  by  the  Court  of  Session. 

It  were  idle  to  detail  the  hitherings  and  thitherings, 
the  preliminaries,  preparations,  and  manifold  circum- 
locutions, that  preceded  the  opening,  on  the  21st  of 
November  1837,  of  this  momentous  trial.  In  con- 
sideration of  its  importance,  order  was  made  that 
it   should   take    place    before    the   whole    Court.       Lord 


THE  RESURGENT  CHURCH — THE  SUDDEN  STORM.       99 

President  Hope  and  twelve  judges,  Lords  Gillies,  Boyle, 
Meadowbank,  Mackenzie,  Medwyn,  Corehouse,  Cunning- 
ham, Fullerton,  Moncreiff,  Glenlee,  Jeffrey,  and  Cockljurn, 
occupied  the  Bench.  The  leading  counsel  for  the  pur- 
suers or  plantiffs  was  Mr.  Hope,  Dean  of  Faculty ;  the 
leading  counsel  for  the  defence,  Mr.  Eutherford,  Solicitor- 
General, — men  of  acknowledged  eminence  in  parts, acquire- 
ments, and  eloquence.  From  the  21st  of  November  to 
the  12  th  of  December  the  pleadings  continued.  On  the 
27th  of  February  the  judges  began  to  deliver  their 
opinions.  On  the  8th  of  March  sentence  was  pronounced. 
The  report  of  what  was  argued  by  counsel  and  decided 
by  the  judges  occupies  volumes,  but  it  may  prove  possible, 
if  only  we  can  direct  our  glance  to  essentials,  to  bring 
these  within  a  narrow  compass. 

The  Dean  of  Faculty,  whether  it  was  that  research 
had  opened  his  eyes,  or  whether  it  was  that,  being  now 
an  advocate,  he  felt  himself  permitted,  by  his  professional 
conscience,  to  consider  solely  the  interests  of  his  clients, 
took  up  a  position  relatively  to  the  Church  of  Scotland 
and  the  claims  of  Presbytery  wide  as  the  poles  asunder 
from  that  which  he  occupied  when  he  called  upon 
Chalmers  to  show  fight  against  the  Whig  Commission. 
He  declared,  with  a  sweeping  comprehensiveness  and 
a  peremptory  dogmatism,  which  could  have  been  sur- 
passed by  no  parliamentary  lawyer  of  England  assert- 
ing the  axiomatic  subordmation  of  Church  to  State  in 
the  land  of  Henry,  Elizabeth,  and  Oliver  Cromwell,  that 
the  Church  of  Scotland  owed  her  very  existence  to  the 
State.  The  Establishment,  in  fact,  was  the  Church.  The 
Government    had    put   down    the    Romish   Church,  and 


100  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

"  for  some  time  no  Establishment  whatever  existed 
ill  its  room."  But  the  State  could  create  as  well  as 
destroy.  "  A  new  and  vigorous,  a  young  and  untried 
fabric,  full  of  energy  and  power,  was  created  by  the 
State  in  the  room  of  that  which  the  State  overturned 
and  abolished.  I  say  created,  for  it  was  devised,  formed, 
moulded,  instituted,  and  created  wholly  and  of  new  by 
the  State." 

If  this  is  substantially  true,  if  the  Dean  is  practically 
in  the  right,  then  the  whole  conception  formed  by 
historians  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  has  been  a  mistake, 
and  the  differentia,  the  contrast,  deeply  marked  in  the 
history  of  three  centuries,  between  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land and  the  Church  of  England  has  been  a  dream. 
That  he  meant  to  go  the  whole  length  of  the  Erastian 
theory,  denying  all  separate  jurisdiction  in  spiritual 
things,  and  reducing  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  a  depart- 
ment of  the  State,  is  proved  by  his  deliberately  pro- 
nouncing her  claims  to  powers  derived  from  "  her  great 
spiritual  head  "  to  be  "  the  most  pernicious  error  by  which 
the  blessed  truths  of  Christianity  can  be  perverted." 
The  sensitively  Presbyterian  exhorter  of  Chalmers 
can  now,  by  the  deft  insertion  of  an  adjective,  hurl 
against  his  Presbyterian  mother  Church  the  accusation, 
dear  to  confused  and  weak-headed  persons,  of  being 
Popish.  Hers  is  the  "  error  which  arms  fallible  man 
with  the  belief  that  he  possesses  the  power  and  authority 
of  the  Divine  Teacher  whom  he  worships."  Every  one 
who  has  any  real  acquaintance  with  the  subject  knows 
that  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  always  jealously 
abjured   pretension   to   infallibility,  and   that   her   claim 


THE  RESURGENT  CHURCH — THE  SUDDEN  STORM.    101 

to  legislate  or  regulate  in  the  name  of  Christ  has  meant 
simply  that  she  is  directly  responsible  to  Him.  The 
infallibility  claimed  by  the  Church  goes  as  far  as  the 
infallibility  claimed  by  conscience, — not  a  step  farther. 
To  summon  up  spectral  possibilities  of  mischief  and 
of  absurdity,  as  arising  out  of  the  claim  of  the  Churcli 
to  obey  God  rather  than  man,  and  that  in  no  wildly 
mystical  or  madly  fanatical  sense,  but  as  limited  by,  and 
in  strictest  accordance  with.  Old  Testament  law  and  New 
Testament  gospel,  which  is  the  whole  length  and  breadth 
and  depth  and  height  of  the  Presbyterian  claim  to  free- 
dom and  self-government,  —  this  constituted  surely  an 
extravagant  flight  of  forensic  audacity. 

It  was  not  ditiicult  for  Mr.  Eutherford  to  rebut  an 
argument  based  upon  principles  so  inconsistent  with 
truth  as  those  of  the  Dean.  Admitting  that  the  Court 
of  Session  had  full  power  and  jurisdiction  in  respect 
of  the  temporal  fruits  of  the  benefice,  he  had  but  to 
refer  to  explicit  statements  of  the  Confession  of  Faith 
to  make  it  plain  that,  in  so  strictly  spiritual  a  matter  as 
ordination,  the  Court  of  Session  could  possess  no  juris- 
diction over  the  Church.  The  sheer  intensity  of  the 
mistake  or  misrepresentation  contended  against  forced 
his  argument  when  at  its  strongest  —  historically  un- 
answerable and  logically  a  knitting  together  of  links  of 
iron — to  take  an  exclamatory  form.  "  Enforcing,"  he 
cried,  "  by  your  Lordships'  decrees,  the  spuitual  induction 
of  a  pastor !  Compelling,  under  pain  of  horning  and 
imprisonment,  the  Church  to  confer  the  spiritual  gift 
of  the  ministry !  Have  the  pursuers  reflected  for  a 
moment  upon  the  nature  of  the  proposition  they  main- 


102  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

tain?  It  is  simony — a  grave  ecclesiastical  offence,  a 
crime  even  of  deep  die,  in  the  eye  of  the  Chnrch,  and 
not  considered  lightly  by  the  law — to  procure  presenta- 
tion for  good  office  and  reward ;  or,  in  the  case  of  a  call, 
to  procure  concurrence  to  the  call  by  sunilar  means. 
Then  what  shall  it  be  if  the  Civil  Power  compel,  by 
imprisonment,  by  the  dread  of  punishment, — by  brute 
force,  for  it  comes  to  that, — the  imposition  of  hands,  and 
that  gift  of  the  Spirit  which  is  presumed  to  pass  by  the 
cSremony  of  ordination  ?  " 

As  two  tea-spoonfuls  will  tell  the  taste  of  two  wells, 
these  minute  samples  reveal  the  drift  and  character  of 
the  respective  pleadings  of  the  Dean  of  Faculty  and  the 
SoKcitor-General.  We  turn,  therefore,  to  the  opinions 
of  the  judges.  The  Lord  President  took  the  same  view 
of  the  origin  and  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  as  was  taken 
by  the  Dean.  "  That  our  Saviour,"  he  said,  with  the 
pungency  of  scorn,  "  is  the  temporal  head  of  the  Kirk  of 
Scotland  in  any  temporal,  or  legislative,  or  judicial  sense, 
is  a  position  which  I  can  dignify  by  no  other  name  than 
absurdity.  The  Parliament  is  the  temporal  head  of  the 
Church,  from  whose  acts,  and  from  whose  acts  alone,  it 
exists  as  the  national  Church,  and  from  which  alone  it 
derives  all  its  powers."  The  arrogant  sweep  of  general- 
isation in  this  would-be  philosophical,  but,  in  fact,  merely 
rhetorical  deliverance,  blurs  and  defaces,  where  it  ought 
to  have  discriminated  and  elucidated,  the  lines  of  liis- 
torical  testimony  and  accurate  thought.  It  is  safe  to 
conclude  that  men  who  characterise  all  the  powers  of  the 
Church  as  temporal,  will  ignore,  with  a  completeness 
naturally  proceeding  from  total  inability  to  perceive,  the 


THE  RESURGENT  CHURCH — THE  SUDDEN  STORM.    103 

spiritual  powers  of  the  Church.  The  Lord  President, 
therefore,  had  no  difficulty  in  dismissing,  as  an  illegahty, 
a  triviality,  not  instituted  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
abolished  or  turned  into  an  empty  form  by  the  Patronage 
Act  of  Queen  Anne,  that  call,  or  expression  of  consent  by 
the  congregation,  which  the  Church  now  affirmed  to  be 
of  vital  miportance. 

Lord  Gillies  followed  the  President  in  treating  the 
will  of  the  people,  compared  with  tlie  wish  of  the 
patron,  as  of  no  consequence.  "  If  the  question  is  put," 
said  Lord  Gillies,  "  whether  the  call  is  to  be  rendered 
or  continued  a  mockery,  or  whether  patronage  is  to  be 
rendered  a  mockery,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  thinking  that 
the  call  must  yield  to  the  presentation."  The  power, 
that  is  to  say,  of  one  man,  respecting  whom  there  is  no 
guarantee  that  he  is  even  professedly  a  religiovis  man, 
to  fix  another  man,  who  though  externally  irreproachable 
may  also  be  spiritually  dead,  as  the  pastor  of,  say,  a 
thousand  devout  parishioners  for  fifty  years,  is  of  more 
importance  in  the  eye  of  the  law  than  the  will  of  the 
parishioners  to  stay  his  appointment ;  and  if,  under  those 
circumstances,  the  Church  comes  to  the  rescue  of  the 
parishioners,  she  must  simply  be  taught  by  the  Court  of 
Session  to  do  her  duty  of  intrusion.  Lord  Medwyn  was 
an  Episcopalian,  and  could  hardly  be  expected  to  under- 
stand the  genius  of  Presbytery.  He  also  pronounced 
the  right  of  the  patron  unassailable.  Eight  out  of  the 
thirteen  judges  were  of  this  mind. 

Law  is  law,  a  blind  goddess,  and  no  rational  enthusiast 
for  law  will  expect  her  to  execute  in  all  instances  the 
office  of  the  most  open-eyed  of  the   Olympian    powers, 


104  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

the  office  of  justice.  To  take  care  that  justice  or  injustice 
shall  flow  in  the  channel  legislatively  prescribed  for  it, — to 
make  sure  that  injustice,  even  though  raised  thereby  to  its 
terrible  maximum,  as  contemplated  in  Holy  Writ,  shall  be 
injustice  decreed  by  law, — this  is  the  ideal  of  perfection  for 
all  Courts  constituted  like  the  Court  of  Session.  It  would 
be  unreasonable,  therefore,  to  indulge  in  anything  like 
vituperation  of  the  eight  judges  who  virtually  held  that 
the  call,  drawn  by  the  Church  as  a  rampart  round  the 
dearest  liberties  of  congregations,  had  been  but  a  rope  of 
sand  to  bind  the  waves  of  an  advancing  tide,  and  that  the 
boasted  jurisdiction  of  the  Chvirch  of  Scotland  in  things 
spiritual  was  either  an  absurdity  or  an  attempt  to  resume 
the  a1)olished  jurisdiction  of  the  Papacy.  But  it  is  well 
to  remember  that,  even  on  a  question  of  law,  a  majority 
of  judges  of  the  Court  of  Session  are  not  infallible,  and 
that  the  opinion  of  a  minority  of  the  judges,  if  they 
are  more  favourably  circumstanced  for  a  consideration 
of  all  the  evidence,  may  be  of  very  high  importance 
indeed,  if  we  wish  to  know,  not  exclusively  the  technical 
and  professional  value  of  the  decision,  but  the  degree  in 
which  it  accords  with  the  l^eneficial  working  of  institu- 
tions and  the  deepest  claims  of  justice. 

The  minority,  to  begin  with,  was  formidable  in  numljer 
— five  against  eight.  If  we  believe — as  we  certainly 
may — that  an  Episcopalian  was  more  or  less  disqualified 
to  decide  upon  a  thoroughly  Presbyterian  question,  and  if 
we  dismiss,  as  inapplicable  to  the  Church  of  Scotland,  the 
undisguised  Erastianism  of  another  of  the  judges,  we  shall 
reduce  the  majority  to  six  against  five.  Of  the  majority 
of  three,  which  the  Court  of  Session  had  found  to  make 


THE  RESURGENT  CHURCH — THE  SUDDEN  STORM.    105 

its  new  Thermopylae  against  the  invasive  Church  of  Scot- 
land, there  thus  remains  but  one.  To  play  the  part  of 
this  Leonidas,  we  may  elect  Lord  Mackenzie,  who  held 
that  the  Church  in  her  attempts,  persisted  in  for  upwards 
of  a  century,  even  under  Moderate  domination,  to  main- 
tain the  call  after  the  passing  of  the  Queen  Anne's 
Act,  had  perpetrated  "  a  piece  of  resistance  to  the 
Legislature."  Or  we  may  prefer  Lord  Corehouse,  who 
told  the  Court  that  Pope  Gelasius,  so  long  ago  as  a.d. 
493,  had  settled  the  matter  on  the  side  of  intrusion, 
though  his  Lordship's  quotation  from  Gelasius  seems  to 
tell  rather  the  other  way,  for  it  recognises  the  fact  of 
opposition  to  the  settlement  of  a  minister  being  made 
by  the  people,  and  gives  no  hint  of  power  on  the 
part  of  a  patron  to  overrule  them,  but  only  of  the 
duty  of  the  clergy  to  "  compel "  them  "  by  assiduous 
admonitions,"  that  is  to  say,  by  moral  suasion,  "  to  give 
their  consent."  Or  we  can  content  ourselves  with  Lord 
Cunningham,  the  youngest  of  the  judges,  who  may  be 
supposed  to  have  been  partly  influenced  by  the  novelty 
of  his  position  in  concurring  with  the  majority.  At  all 
events,  if  either  of  these  is  excluded,  we  have  reduced 
the  majority  to  a  numerical  equality  with  the  minority. 
And  this  we  may  expect  all  candid  persons  to  admit, — 
that,  if  the  views  and  sentiments  of  the  three  were 
fairly  representative  of  those  of  the  majority  in  general, 
then  these  judges  of  the  Court  of  Session,  in  adjudicating 
on  the  Church  of  Scotland  as  an  Establishment,  evinced 
signal  indifference  to  any  amis,  objects,  ambitions  she 
might  entertain,  any  characteristics  she  might  possess,  or 
any  uses  she  might  subserve,  as  a  Christian  Church. 


106      THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

The  five  Lords  of  Session  who  repudiated  the 
judgment  of  the  majority  were  men  who  knew  the  history 
of  Scotland,  and  the  part  which  the  Church  had  played 
in  that  history.  If  the  State  had  created  the  Church,  or 
even  the  Establishment,  they  did  not  forget  that  there 
had  been  a  purpose  in  the  creation,  and  that  this  purpose 
had  not  been  to  promote  the  dignity  or  influence  of 
patrons,  but  to  bring  home  the  gospel  of  Christ  to 
parishioners.  Had  they  been  deciding  a  case  in  connec- 
tion with  the  medical  profession,  they  would  have  con- 
sidered it  germane  to  the  business  to  keep  in  view  the 
healing  of  bodies ;  and  in  deciding  on  a  case  connected 
with  a  Church,  they  held  it  right  to  recollect  that  a 
Church  is  an  institute  for  the  healing  of  souls.  Some  of 
these  judges  of  the  minority  have  shed  unfading  lustre 
on  their  country,  and  are  honourably  known  wherever 
Scotch  common  sense  and  clear-headedness  have  made 
themselves  a  name. 

Such  were  Jeffrey  and  Cockburn.  Until  the  Bio- 
graphy of  Macaulay  and  the  Eeminiscences  of  Carlyle 
appeared,  the  w^orld  did  not  know  what  cordial  humour, 
dramatic  versatility,  and  treasures  of  true-hearted  friend- 
ship dwelt  in  Jeffrey.  In  his  passionate  hatred  of 
mawkishness  and  tea-drinking  goody-goody-ism,  and  of 
every  form  of  affectation,  he  was  too  arid  to  Wordsworth  ; 
but  all  the  world  now  agrees  with  him  that  there  is  in 
Wordsworth,  with  all  his  merit,  a  tea-drinking  didacticism 
that  "  will  never  do."  It  was  not  of  the  Prelude,  he. 
it  remembered,  which  has  in  it  the  crimsons  of  Words- 
worth's beaming  sunrise,  but  of  the  Excursion,  which 
has     in     it    the     pearl -blue    and    somewhat    slumbrous 


THE  RESURGENT  CHURCH — THE  SUDDEN  STORM.    107 

azure  of  his  afternoon,  that  Jeffrey  uttered  those  famous 
words.  If,  however,  Jeffrey  lacked  the  melodiousness 
that  goes  to  the  making  of  a  supreme  critic,  he  was 
pre-eminently  fitted  by  his  combination  of  practical 
sense  with  intellectual  clearness  to  be  a  good  lawyer 
and  a  sagacious  judge.  He  put  aside  by  a  few  precise 
words,  carrying  with  them  their  own  evidence,  the  vague 
and  grandiose  pretensions  put  forward  as  to  the  all- 
comprehending  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of  Session. 
"  It  has  no  proper  jurisdiction,"  he  said,  "  except  in 
civilihus.  With  a  few  exceptions,  not  affecting  the 
principle,  it  has  no  jurisdiction  in  crimes,  and  with  no 
exceptions  at  all,  it  has  no  jurisdiction  whatever  in 
matters  properly  ecclesiastical ;  and  especially  none  as 
to  the  examination,  ordination,  or  admission  of  ministers, 
which  are  not  only  in  their  ow^n  proper  nature  ecclesiast- 
ical proceedings,  but  are  expressly  declared  by  the  Acts 
of  1567  and  1592  to  be  exclusively  for  the  Church  judi- 
catures." Too  well  acquainted  with  the  history  of  his 
Church  to  be  liable  to  any  mystification  as  to  her  having 
been  from  the  beginning  a  Church  of  the  people,  he 
treated  the  view,  that  the  call  had  been  paralysed  by  the 
touch  of  law  into  a  hollow  form,  as  absolutely  untenable. 
Along  with  Lord  Moncreiff  and  Lord  Fullerton,  he  main- 
tained that  even  Queen  Anne's  Act,  though  it  transferred 
the  presentation  from  the  elders  and  heritors  to  the 
patron,  did  not  destroy  the  ancient  right  of  the  people 
to  have  no  minister  settled  against  their  consent. 

Lord  Cockburn,  another  man  who  thoroughly  under- 
stood the  character  both  of  the  Church  and  the  people  of 
Scotland,  also  exclaimed  against  the  idea  that  the  call  liad 


108  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

been  legally  turned  into  a  mockery.  "  I  could  not  have 
been  more  surprised,"  he  said,  "  on  being  told  that  Pres- 
bytery was  not  the  Church  of  this  country,  than  I  have 
been  by  learning  that  calls,  except  as  forms,  are  no  part 
of  our  Presbytery ;  they  seem  to  me  to  be  absolutely 
imbedded  in  the  constitution  and  in  the  practice  of  the 
Church." 

The  Court  decided  that  the  Presbytery  of  Auchter- 
arder,  in  rejecting  Mr.  Young  because  "  a  majority  of  the 
male  heads  of  families,  communicants  in  the  said  parish, 
have  dissented,  without  any  reason  assigned,  from  his 
admission  as  minister,"  had  acted  "  illegally  and  in  viola- 
tion of  their  duty."  This  judgment  was  signed  on  the 
10th  of  March  1838,  and  the  least  imaginative  reader 
w411  feel  that  this  lent  a  greatly  enhanced  interest  to 
the  proceedings  of  the  General  Assembly  which  met  in 
Edinburgh  in  the  following  May.  In  the  bare  words  of 
the  Court  of  Session's  judgment,  viewed  negatively,  it 
was  possible  enough  that  no  fateful  import  should  lie. 
But  if  it  were  taken  to  imply  that  the  Court  required 
and  commanded  the  Presbytery  to  ordain  a  man  whom 
the  Church,  by  her  law,  pronounced  it  sinful  to  ordain, 
then  the  inference  became  irresistible  that  the  spiritual 
freedom  of  the  Church  was  called  in  question.  Ordina- 
tion is  a  spiritual  act,  if  there  is  such  an  act  in  existence. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
preparing  for  f0e  Srap^ 

THE  General  Assembly  of  May  1838  followed  quick 
upon  the  signing  of  the  judgment  in  the  Auchterarder 
case  in  March.  The  interest  of  the  occasion,  for  thinking 
persons  and  students  of  history,  is  great,  for  it  places  before 
us  the  two  traditional  parties  taking  up  their  respective 
positions,  in  view  of  the  sombre  and  perilous  future. 
The  subject-matter  requires  nice  attention  and  careful 
discrimination,  but  does  not  lend  itself  to  dramatic  effects 
or  yield  harvest  of  sensational  incidents. 

Chalmers  was  not  a  member  of  this  Assembly,  although, 
as  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say,  the  action  of  the  Re- 
forming party  was  exactly  conformed  to  his  sentiments. 
The  position  taken  up  by  the  Evangelicals  was  de- 
fined by  Mr.  Robert  Buchanan  in  that  lucid,  expressive, 
and  dignified  language  which  befits  so  well  his  own 
authoritative  and  noble  work  on  the  Conflict.  The 
case  tried  by  the  Court  of  Session  had,  he  explained, 
risen  out  of  the  Veto  Act.  "  Tlie  object  of  that 
Act  was  to  give  full  force  and  ell'ect  to  the  funda- 
mental law  of  the  Churcli,  '  that  no  pastor  he  intruded 

10!) 


110  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

on  any  congregation  contrary  to  the  ^Yill  of  the  people.' " 
He  summed  up  with  masterly  brevity  the  e^ddence  that 
this  principle  was  indeed  fundamental  in  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  "  We  meet  with  it  in  the  very  infancy  of  the 
Church  in  her  First  Book  of  Discipline ;  in  the  Second 
Book  it  is  pointedly  repeated ;  again  at  the  restora- 
tion of  Presbytery  in  1638;  in  the  directory  of  the 
Assembly  of  1649;  and  long  after,  in  1736,  four  and 
twenty  years  after  patronage,  in  its  present  form,  had 
been  restored,  it  is  declared  by  the  Assembly  in  the 
most  solemn  terms."  Such  were  the  lines  of  circumval- 
lation  by  which,  and  now  finally  and  conspicuously  by  the 
Veto  Act,  the  Church  had  guarded  the  rights  of  the  people. 
The  Court  of  Session  had  told  the  Church  that,  in 
erecting  those  walls  of  circumvallation,  and  giving  power 
to  the  people's  will,  she  had  broken  the  law  of  the  land. 
Did  she  then  possess  spiritual  independence,  or  did  her 
Standards  lapse  into  meaningless  platitude,  when  they 
spoke  of  the  Church  as  "  hearing  the  voice  of  Christ, 
the  only  spiritual  King,  and  being  ruled  by  His  laws." 
That  was  the  question  the  Church  was  now  called  to 
face.  Mr.  Buchanan  concluded  by  moving  that  the 
Churcli  should  resolve  to  maintain  at  all  hazards, 
as  the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland  had  done,  "  even  to 
the  death,"  her  testimony  "  for  Christ's  kingdom  and 
crown." 

At  this  critical  moment,  when  the  Court  of  Session  had 
spoken,  and  the  House  of  Lords  was  to  be  asked  to  speak 
with  still  higher  authority,  w^hat  was  the  attitude  assumed 
by  the  party  of  Robertson  and  of  Hill  ?  Dr.  Cook,  the 
vigilant,  quick-seeing,  active  debater  and  skilful  tactician. 


PREPARING  FOR  THE  ERA  Y.  Ill 

was  the  \yorking  leader.  For  one  thing, — and  the  point  is 
of  great  importance, — he  was  entirely  of  opinion  that  the 
Court  of  Session's  judgment  ought  to  be  carried  by 
appeal  to  the  House  of  Lords.  It  had  not  occurred  to 
him  that  the  Church  could  be  asked  to  accept  the  de- 
cision of  the  Court  of  Session  simjjliciter,  and  thus  to 
acknowledge  that,  in  keeping  up  the  form  of  the  call 
for  three  or  four  generations,  the  Moderate  party  had 
been  merely  going  through  a  piece  of  child's  play.  But 
Dr.  Cook  went  farther  than  was  implied  in  agreement  as 
to  this  particular  case.  He  accepted  with  emphasis  the 
general  principle  of  spiritual  independence.  Alluding 
to  his  "  reverend  and  respected  friend,"  Mr.  Buchanan, 
"  there  is  no  language,"  cried  the  Moderate  leader,  "  which 
he  could  use  stronger  than  I  would  be  inclined  to  adopt 
to  assert  the  spiritual  independence  of  the  Church,  and 
to  vindicate  the  power  which  we  have  received  from  its 
great  Head." 

The  thorough -paced  Erastianism  of  the  majority  of 
the  Court  of  Session — the  position  that  the  State  had 
created  the  Church  as  it  might  create  a  corporation  of 
cordwainers  —  sent  some  twinge  of  honest  pain,  some 
touch  of  true  angina  pectoris,  to  the  Presbyterian  heart 
of  Dr.  Cook.  "  I  entirely  agree  with  my  reverend  friend 
that  our  Church,  the  Church  of  Christ,  is  not  the  creature 
of  the  State.  We  had  our  doctrines,  our  views  and 
principles,  before  we  were  connected  with  the  State ;  and 
we  would  have  them  to-morrow  if  we  were  to  sever  that 
connection."  Nay,  he  professed,  for  himself  and  his 
party,  a  positive  enthusiasm  for  the  distinctive  principle 
of  Presljyterianism,  a  readiness  to  "  display  the   banner 


112  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

of  our  great  King  and  Head,  and  if  necessary,"  under  it 
to  "  perish." 

Apart  from  all  that  followed, — apart  even  from  the 
logical  consistency  of  Dr.  Cook's  present  speech  and  the 
moral  courage  or  cowardice  of  him  and  his  party, — these 
statements  ought  to  be  remembered.  They  link  the  Pres- 
l)yterianism  of  to-day  with  the  Presbyterianism  of  Andrew 
Thomson.  They  prove  that,  after  all  the  contendings 
and  heart-burnings  of  the  intervening  time,  the  divisions 
(jf  the  Church  of  Scotland  have  not  theoretically  touched 
any  principle  accepted  by  the  one  party  and  rejected  by 
the  other.  The  Moderates  never  in  words  repudiated  the 
doctrine  of  the  Headship  of  Christ,  never  denied  that 
it  involved  the  spiritual  independence  of  the  Church, 
never  adopted  the  creed  of  Erastian  statesmen  and 
perverse  or  contemptuous  lawyers.  Throughout  their 
long  period  of  ascendancy,  they  never  abandoned  the 
call,  never  forgot  the  watchwords  of  their  Church,  never 
confessed  that  they  were  not  (at  heart)  as  staunch  main- 
tainers  of  the  spiritual  independence  as  Andrew  Thomson 
himself.  But  it  had  always  been  averred  by  the 
Evangelicals  that  the  Moderate  homage  to  the  principle 
was  homage  of  the  lip.  When  the  question  came  of 
sacrificing  the  rights  of  the  people  or  of  bending  to 
the  Civil  Power,  they  had  fawned  on  the  power  and 
deserted  the  people.  Tlie  Church  of  Scotland,  in  her 
days  of  martyr  heroism,  had  turned  her  own  cheek  to 
the  smiter ;  the  Moderate  party  turned  Christ's  cheek,  in 
the  person  of  the  poor  parishioner,  to  the  blows  of  Caesar. 
And  so,  in  the  Asseml)ly  of  1838,  while  declaring  his 
readiness  to  perish  for  the  Headship  of  Christ,  Dr.  Cook 


PREPARING  FOR  THE  ERA  Y.  113 

assumed  with  his  party  a  demeanour  of  awestruck  and 
overpowered  expectancy  as  to  what  the  authorities  might 
ultimately  determine  in  relation  to  Auchterarder.  If 
the  State  should  prove  to  be  on  the  Church's  side,  then 
he  would  shout,  and  wave  the  old  banner.  He  did  not 
object — far  from  it — to  appealing  from  the  Court  of 
Session  to  the  House  of  Lords  to  have  the  law  ascer- 
tained. But  if  it  appeared  that  the  exercise  of  the 
spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  really  affected  the 
property  rights  of  patrons,  then  the  Church,  instead  of 
guarding  the  spiritual  will  of  the  people  as  a  sacred 
thing,  should  consider  herself  bound  to  ask  the  State  to 
draw  anew  the  line  of  demarcation  between  the  spiritual 
jurisdiction  belonging  to  the  Church  and  the  civil  juris- 
diction belonging  to  the  State.  The  Court  of  Session 
declared  that,  in  the  present  instance,  the  Church  had 
overstepped  the  frontiers  of  her  province  by  barring  the 
way  to  patrons  in  intruding  ministers  upon  congregations. 
If  this  should  indeed  be  the  law,  as  the  House  of  Lords 
would  determine,  then,  said  Dr.  Cook  in  effect,  the 
Church  must  conform.  Wlien  a  difference  of  opinion 
arises,  it  is  for  the  State  to  decide. 

In  the  last  resort,  and  when  the  question  is  as  to 
whether  the  Establishment  shall  continue  to  exist  or 
shall  not,  this  is  true.  The  State  has  the  physical  force. 
The  Church  cannot  resist  the  civil  sword.  By  the 
unanimous  admission  of  all  Presbyterians  who  know  the 
alphabet  of  their  constitutional  principles,  the  Church 
not  only  possesses  no  vestige  of  physical  force,  but  claims 
not  an  iota  of  jurisdiction  over  property.  If  the  State 
says,  therefore,  I  lay  down  such  and  siich  a  condition  of 


114  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Establishment ;  and  the  Church  says,  I  will  not  or  cannot 
accept  it :  then  the  Church  cannot  be,  or  continue,  Estab- 
lished. This  was  what  eventually  happened.  This  was 
the  consummation  devoutly  deprecated  by  the  impassioned 
champions  of  Establishment  who  passed  the  Veto  Act. 
But  the  fundamental  principle  on  which  the  Scottish 
Church  had  accepted  Establishment  was  that  her  spiiitual 
freedom  should,  in  the  outset,  be  conceded.  Until  this  con- 
cession was  retracted,  she  had  a  right,  even  as  an  Estab- 
lishment, to  be  governed,  under  Christ,  by  her  own 
officers,  and  to  make  and  apply  her  own  spiritual  laws. 
Since  Dr.  Cook  admitted  that,  in  giving  effect  to  the 
people's  will  at  Auchterarder,  the  Church  had  done  no 
more  than  exercise  her  spiritual  jurisdiction,  he  obviously 
could  not,  without  surrendering  that  independence,  display 
readiness  to  accept  the  State's  decision  as  to  whether  that 
independence  belonged  to  her  or  did  not. 

In  order  to  understand  how  it  was  that  the  knife  of 
the  Court  of  Session  struck  the  Church  in  this  matter 
of  spiritual  jurisdiction  under  the  fifth  rib,  we  ought  to 
conceive  distinctly  that  it  was  the  rite  of  ordination  that 
the  Court  interfered  with.  In  effect,  the  Court  of  Session 
said  to' the  Churcli,  Thou  shalt  ordain  this  man  pastor  of 
the  parish.  Let  an  Englishman  image  to  hmiself  how 
an  exclusive  club  would  feel  if  a  Court  of  law  said.  Thou 
shalt  admit  this  man  to  membership ;  or  how  the  medical 
profession  would  feel  if  a  Court  of  law  said,  Thou  shalt 
inscribe  this  man  on  the  Medical  Eegister.  These  are, 
mutatis  mutandifi,  nearly  analogous  cases  to  that  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  being  ordered  by  the  Court  of  Session 
to  ordain  ministers  against  reclaiming  congregations.    But 


PREPARING  FOR  THE  ERA  V.  115 

the  case  of  the  Church,  smce  conscience  was  obviously 
and  inevitably  engaged,  was  more  manifestly  unjust  and 
cruel  than  would  be  the  supposed  case  of  a  club  or  a 
profession. 

The  simple  and  intrepid  course  of  standing  to  what 
the  Church,  in  solemn  performance  of  her  religious  duty, 
had  done,  was  proposed  by  Mr.  Buchanan.  A  more 
equivocal  course,  asserting  the  possession  of  spiritual 
independence  in  the  abstract,  but  virtually  asking  the 
State  to  say  what  spiritual  independence  meant,  was  pro- 
posed by  Dr.  Cook.  The  Assembly  decided  by  183 
voices  to  142  in  favour  of  the  former. 


CHAPTEK  XIV. 
&or^  QSroug^am  in  fine  S^tm* 

THERE  was  no  difference  of  view  between  the  lleform- 
ing  and  the  Moderate  parties  in  the  General 
Assembly  of  1838  as  to  whether  the  judgment  of  the 
Court  of  Session  in  the  Auchterarder  case  should  be 
carried  by  appeal  to  the  House  of  Lords.  It  came  up 
for  final  decision  on  the  2nd  of  May  1839,  and  on  that 
day  Lord  Cottenham  and  Lord  Brougham  delivered  their 
judicial  opinions  upon  the  suly'ect. 

It  was  perhaps  a  matter  of  course  that  Lord  Cotten- 
ham, an  Englishman,  should  take  it  for  granted  that,  in 
a  case  of  discrepancy  between  lawyers  and  parsons  in 
Scotland,  the  parsons  should  be  WTong  and  the  lawyers 
right.  But  it  sent  a  shock  of  surprise,  as  well  as  of 
pain,  to  many  in  Scotland,  to  find  that  Henry  Brougham 
had  so  little  heart-knowledge  of  his  native  land.  It  is 
curiously  suggestive  that  one  who  played  a  part  so 
memorable,  so  brilliant,  so  illustrious,  as  that  of  Lord 
Brougham,  in  the  arena  of  Parliamentary  Reform,  should, 
in  adjudicating  upon  the  Constitution  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  have  put  scornfully  aside,  as  not  worth  serious 

110 


LORD  BROUGHAM  IN  FINE  FORM.  117 

consideration,  the  popular  call  of  congregations  to  their 
ministers.  With  the  vehemence  characteristic  of  fiery 
temperaments  when  they  are  particularly  in  the  wrong, 
he  emphasised  the  point  that  the  call  could  not  possibly 
entitle  the  people  to  more  than  to  have  the  presentee 
tested  by  the  Presbytery  as  to  his  possession  of  certain 
specified  qualifications.  Fancy  this  as  a  method  for 
securing  that  parliamentary  constituencies  should  not 
have  members  intruded  upon  them  !  Fancy  the  look 
of  the  free  and  independent,  if  they  were  required  to 
accept  Mr.  So-and-so,  the  nominee  of  Lord  This-or-that, 
to  represent  them,  unless  they  could  prove  him  exception- 
able in  a  few  particular  respects  !  And  is  it  easier  for  a 
constituency  to  discern  who  are  the  men  fitted  to  rule  the 
Empire,  than  for  parishioners  to  discern  who  is  the  man 
that  will  visit  them  in  their  cottages  with  glimpses  of 
heavenly  consolation,  and  edify  them  from  the  pulpit  in 
the  name  of  Christ  ? 

Macaulay  says  that  Hume  so  strongly  disliked  the 
religion  of  the  Puritans,  that  he  was  incapable  of  doing 
justice  to  their  services  to  liberty.  Men  of  affairs  are  apt 
to  treat  religion  as  if  it  were  really  and  truly  nothing 
at  all.  So  dark  was  Brougham  on  the  religious  side,  that 
it  seems  to  have  never  flashed  upon  him  that  there  could 
be  any  analogy  Ijetween  the  election  of  a  member  by  a 
parliamentary  constituency,  and  the  choice  of  a  minister 
by  a  congregation.  Sympathetic  in  the  highest  degree 
with  the  aspirations  of  freemen  to  send  representatives 
to  Parliament,  he  had  no  intelligent  sympathy  whatever 
with  the  wish  of  devout  parishioners  to  have  a  voice  in 
the   election   of   their   ministers.     "  Surely,"   said   Hugh 


118  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Miller,  in  a  Letter  to  Lord  Brougham  to  which  we  shall 
have  further  occasion  to  refer,  "  the  people  of  Scotland  are 
not  so  changed  but  tliat  they  know  at  least  as  much  of 
the  doctrines  of  the  New  Testament  as  of  the  principles 
of  civil  government,  and  of  the  requisites  of  a  gospel 
minister  as  of  the  qualifications  of  a  member  of  Parlia- 
ment." He  reminds  Lord  Brougham  of  a  fact  which  his 
Lordship  might  have  learned  from  Burns,  or  Carlyle,  or 
Scott,  that  freedom's  sword  and  rehgion's  Bible  have  been 
associate  powers  in  the  history  of  Scotland,  the  religion 
having  generally  been  in  the  van  of  the  freedom.  "  Is  it  at 
all  possible  that  you,  my  Lord,  a  native  of  Scotland,  and 
possessed  of  more  general  information  than  perhaps  any 
other  man  living,  can  have  yet  to  learn  that  we  have 
thought  long  and  deeply  of  our  religion,  whereas  our 
political  speculations  began  but  yesterday,  —  that  our 
popular  struggles  have  been  struggles  for  the  right  of 
worshipping  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  our  con- 
science, and  under  the  guidance  of  ministers  of  our  own 
choice, — and  that,  when  anxiously  employed  in  finding 
arguments  by  which  rights  so  dear  to  us  might  be 
rationally  defended,  our  discovery  of  the  principles  of 
civil  liberty  was  merely  a  sort  of  chance -consequence 
of  the  search  ?  " 

Hugh  Miller's  Letter  was  suggested  by  Lord  Brougham's 
opinion  on  the  Court  of  Session's  judgment;  but  had  it 
preceded  that  opinion,  it  would  most  probably  have  had 
no  influence  upon  his  Lordship.  Was  not  property  in- 
volved ?  Was  not  the  shadow  of  property  more  unport- 
ant  than  the  substance  of  religion  ?  Brougham  talked 
grandiosely  about  tlie  patrimonial  property  of  the  patron, 


LORD  BROUGHAM  IN  FINE  FORM.  119 

and  took  it  for  granted,  as  a  thing  beyond  all  question, 
that  property,  called  into  existence  wholly  and  solely 
for  the  spiritual  nourishment  of  the  parishioners,  was 
of  more  moment  than  what  it  subserved.  The  call,  said 
this  great  orator,  —  who  loved  a  joke,  —  was  as  mere 
a  ceremony  as  the  wagging  of  the  tail  of  the  people's 
champion's  horse  in  a  coronation  pageant.  Property, 
property,  property, — the  patron's  property, — if  the  rights 
of  the  people  interfered  with  that,  let  the  people  hold 
their  tongues.  This  peremptory  conclusion  of  Lord 
Brougham's  forms  surely  the  finest  historical  exempli- 
fication discoverable  of  the  verdict  returned  in  that  delect- 
able cause,  ciUhre,  versified  by  Cowper,  between  Nose  and 
Eyes.  To  which  of  these  litigants  did  the  spectacles 
belong  ?  Clearly  to  the  nose.  The  spectacles  sat  upon 
the  nose.  The  spectacles  dignified  the  nose.  The  eyes 
were  merely  a  part  of  the  pageant.  The  Court  decided 
tlierefore  in  favour  of  the  nose,  and  decreed  that,  when- 
ever the  nose  put  his  spectacles  on,  by  daylight  or  candle- 
light, eyes  should  be  shut.  Exactly.  The  only  thing 
required  for  the  perfect  legal  vindication  of  the  pro- 
perty of  the  patron  in  the  settlement  of  ministers,  was 
the  formal  abolition  of  the  call,  the  shutting  of  the 
parishioners'  eyes. 

The  House  of  Lords  dismissed  the  appeal  of  the  Church, 
and  confirmed  the  judgment  of  the  Court  of  Session. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

TT  was  the  2nd  of  May  1839  when  the  Lords  gave 
-■-  their  decision.  "Within  the  month  the  General 
Assembly  was  to  meet.  In  the  interval,  the  ground- 
swell  of  a  profomid  and  solemn  agitation  passed  through- 
out the  parishes  of  Scotland.  Not  the  noisy  excitement 
of  politics,  not  the  feverish  eagerness  of  some  great 
expansion  in  trade,  not  the  angry  hum  of  a  nation 
gathering  to  defend  its  frontiers  with  the  sword.  It  was 
the  fervid  exaltation,  the  solemn  interest,  with  which 
a  grave  and  earnest  people,  such  as  Macaulay,  no  flatter- 
ing witness,  declares  the  Scotch  to  be,  regarded  the  peril 
of  that  ancient  Church  which,  more  than  any  other  of 
their  institutions,  had  made  them  what  they  were.  "  A 
people  " — the  words  are  Macaulay's — "  whose  education 
and  habits  are  such  that,  in  every  quarter  of  the  world, 
they  rise  above  the  mass  of  those  with  whom  they  mix, 
as  surely  as  oil  rises  to  the  top  of  water, — a  people  of  such 
temper  and  self-government  that  the  wildest  popular 
excesses  recorded  in  their  history  partake  of  the  gravity 

120 


THE  CHURCH  TAKES  UP  HER  POSITION.         121 

of  judicial  proceedings,  and  of  the  solemnity  of  religious 
rites, — a  people  whose  national  pride  and  mutual  attach- 
ment have  passed  into  a  proverb,- — a  people  whose  high 
and  fierce  spirit,  so  forcibly  described  in  the  haughty 
motto  which  encircles  their  thistle,  preserved  their  in- 
dependence, during  a  struggle  of  centuries,  from  the 
encroachments  of  wealthier  and  mor'3  powerful  neigh- 
bours"— was  moved  by  a  greater  wave  of  feeling  than  had 
rolled  over  it  since  the  last  long  billow  of  the  Covenant- 
ing enthusiasm  ebbed  away.  In  city  streets,  men  who 
had  known  each  other  from  childhood  paused  to  speak, 
with  eager  sympathy,  upon  the  subject.  In  remote  country 
manses,  by  the  farmer's  ingle,  round  the  peasant's  fireside, 
Scotland's  great  concern  was  the  theme  of  conversation ; 
and  above  all,  when  men  presented  themselves  before 
their  Creator  for  social  prayer,  it  lay  upon  their  spirits 
and  rose  to  their  lips. 

The  Assembly  met  on  the  16th  of  May  1839. 
Chalmers,  who  in  his  heart  of  hearts  detested  strife,  and 
loved  to  work  in  the  shade,  had  been  recently  much 
engaged  in  pushing  on  his  Church  Extension  enterprises 
and  his  mission  to  the  poor.  Pledged  to  the  theory  of 
ecclesiastical  Establishments,  he  refused  to  be  persuaded 
that  the  State  could  be  so  infatuated  as  to  strangle  the 
Church  for  showing  herself  alive,  and  putting  forth  the 
energies  of  growth.  We  saw  how,  only  in  the  spring  of 
1838,  he  had  boasted  of  the  inviolable  freedom  of  his 
Church,  and  her  pre-eminence  as  the  pattern  State 
Church  in  Christendom,  before  nine  prelates  of  the 
Church  of  England  and  a  Prince  of  the  Blood.  And 
already,  as   with   the   sudden   blackness  of   eclipse,   her 


122  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

glory  of  peace  and  prosperity  seemed  to  be  exchanged 
for  that  of  tragedy  and  storm.  He  felt  that  the  thmgs 
at  stake  were  essential  to  the  very  life  of  the  Church, 
and  again  he  descended  into  the  arena. 

Three  motions  were  made  in  the  Assembly :  that  of  the 
Moderates,  promptly  put  forward  by  Dr.  Cook ;  that  of 
the  Evangelicals,  proposed  by  Chalmers ;  and  that  of  the 
trimmers  and  compromisers,  by  Dr.  Muir. 

Dr.  Cook  was  frankly  for  surrender.  The  Veto  Act 
had  been  pronounced  by  the  civil  tribunal  to  "  infringe 
on  civil  and  patrimonial  rights."  It  was  therefore  to  be 
deemed  non-existent.  Presbyteries  should  be  instructed 
by  the  Assembly  to  ignore  it,  and  "  proceed  henceforth  in 
the  settlement  of  parishes  according  to  the  practice  which 
prevailed  previously  to  the  passing  of  that  Act."  Such 
was  the  Moderate  attitude.  Twelve  months  previously, 
Dr.  Cook  had  cautiously  seen  to  it  that  the  Moderates 
should  present  an  unbroken  line  with  the  Evangelicals 
in  addressing  the  Civil  Power.  But  now  that  Lord  Gillies 
had  coldly  remarked,  "  The  call  must  yield  to  the  pre- 
sentation," and  that  Lord  Brougham  had  declared  the 
will  of  the  congregation  to  have  no  more  legal  force  than 
the  wagging  of  the  champion's  horse's  tail  at  a  coronation, 
the  Church  must  be  left  by  the  Moderates  to  do  her 
figliting  alone.  Not  even  in  ashing  that  the  Legis- 
lature, supreme  over  both  the  Court  of  Session  and 
the  House  of  Lords,  should  interfere  on  behalf  of 
the  Church,  and  encourage  instead  of  obstructing  her 
in  the  performance  of  her  duty  to  the  flock,  would 
Dr.  Cook  dare  to  associate  himself  and  his  section 
with    the    majority.       And    this    craven   and   crouching 


THE  CHURCH  TAKES  UP  HER  POSITION.  123 

demeanour  was  to  be  that  of  the  Church  of  Knox,  the 
boldest,  beyond  all  debate,  of  the  Churches  of  lieformed 
Christendom. 

Dr.  Chalmers  did  not  lose  his  perfect  self-possession 
at  this  critical  moment.  He  refused  to  hurry  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  State-Church  experiment  had  broken 
down.  Lawyers  might  be  hampered  by  the  letter  of 
statutes,  but  he  could  not  yet  accept  it  as  a  possibility 
that  the  State  really  meant  one  inexorable  condition  of 
Establishment  to  be  paralysis  of  the  Church  in  her  dis- 
tinctive and  essential  powers.  He  would  first,  therefore, 
make  it  unmistakably  clear  what  it  was  that  the  Church 
could  and  would  at  once  give  up  to  the  State  as  non- 
essential ;  secondly,  explain  what  it  was  that  she  could 
not  under  any  conceivable  compulsion  yield ;  and  thirdly, 
propose  that  the  State  should  be  asked,  in  terms  of  loyal 
respectfulness,  to  declare  by  a  distmct  parhamentary 
utterance  that  the  Civil  Power  was  of  one  mind  with  the 
Church  as  to  the  line  of  demarcation  between  them.  The 
Court  of  Session  said  that  the  Church's  procedure  in  the 
Auchterarder  settlement  made  inroad  upon  temporalities. 
Let  the  temporalities  of  the  parish,  then,  remain  where 
the  Court  placed  them,  in  Lord  Kinnoull's  hands,  or  Mr. 
Robert  Young's,  or  where  their  Lordships  chose.  This  dis- 
posed of  his  first  point.  The  Church,  in  the  second  place, 
had  from  tune  immemorial  affirmed  that  the  intrusion  of 
ministers  upon  unwilling  congregations  was  at  variance 
with  her  fundamental  principles.  If  the  State  insisted 
upon  it  that  she  should  violate  this  fundamental  prin- 
ciple, then  the  State  would  be  requiring  her  to  admit  sin, 
and,  of  course,  break   up  the  Establishment.      But,  since 


124  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

the  possibility  of  this  could  not  be  taken  for  granted, 
let,  in  the  third  place,  a  Committee  be  appointed  from 
all  sections  of  the  Assembly,  to  remove,  by  friendly  con- 
ference, any  misunderstanding  between  the  Church  and 
the  State.      Such  was  Chalmers's  motion. 

Could  any  statesman,  or  any  Cabinet  or  conclave  of 
statesmen,  have  framed  a  more  luminously  reasonable, 
a  more  courteously  deferential,  a  more  manifestly  just 
proposal  than  this  ? 

All  the  genius  and  all  the  heart  of  Chalmers  glowed 
and  throbbed  m  his  speech  on  the  occasion.  It  occupied 
three  and  a  half  hours, — we  need  not  take  from  it  more 
than  a  few  sentences.  He  laid  down  what  he  held  to  be 
"  the  true  theory  of  the  connection  between  the  Church 
and  the  State."  The  Church  "  may  have  subsisted  for 
many  ages  as  a  Christian  Church,  with  all  its  tenets  and 
its  usages,  not  as  prescribed  by  human  authority,  but  as 
founded  either  on  the  word  of  God  or  on  their  own 
independent  views  of  Christian  expediency, — meaning  by 
this  their  own  views  of  what  is  best  for  the  good  of 
imperishable  souls.  None  of  these  things  were  given 
up  to  the  State  at  the  time  when  the  Church  entered 
into  an  alhance  with  it ;  but  one  and  all  of  them 
remained  as  intact  and  inviolable  after  this  alliance 
as  before  it.  I  hold  it  to  be  quite  an  axiom,  a  first  and 
elementary  truth,  that  we  are  never  in  any  instance 
to  depart  from  the  obligations  which  lie  upon  us  as  a 
Christian  Church,  for  the  sake  either  of  obtaining  or 
.perpetuating  the  privileges  which  belong  to  us  as  an 
Established  Church. 

"  But    though,    on    the  one    hand,    we    cannot   either 


THE  CHURCH  TAKES  UP  HER  POSITION.  125 

rescind  or  refrain  from  enacting  what  we  hold  to  be 
vital,  ere  we  make  a  voluntary  withdrawment  of  our- 
selves from  the  State,  we  should  make  every  attempt  to 
obtain  its  concurrence,  and  that  in  order  to  avert  the 
calamity  of  a  disruption  betwixt  us ;  and  this,  too,  in  the 
face  of  every  ungenerous  misinterpretation,  to  which  our 
desire  of  preservmg  the  connection  between  the  parties 
with  all  its  advantages  is  liable.  There  is  nothing  of  the 
sycophantish,  nothing  of  the  sordid,  in  the  most  strenuous 
attempts  which  principle  will  suffer  us  to  make,  to  main- 
tain unbroken  the  alliance  between  Church  and  State. 
But  let  me  give  some  idea  to  the  Assembly  of  the  extent 
of  that  degradation  and  helplessness,  •  which,  if  we  do 
submit  to  this  decision  of  the  House  of  Lords,  have  been 
actually  and  already  inflicted  upon  us, — a  degradation  to 
which  the  Church  of  England,  professing  the  King  to  be 
their  Head,  never  would  submit ;  and  to  which  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  professing  the  Lord  Jesus  to  be  their 
Head,  never  can.  Ask  any  English  ecclesiastic  whether 
the  bishop  would  receive  an  order  from  any  Civil  Court 
whatever  on  the  matter  of  ordination,  and  the  instant, 
the  universal  reply  is,  that  he  would  not." 

The  speaker  here  quoted  a  letter  sent  by  Lord  Mel- 
bourne to  one  who  had  appealed  to  the  King  to  command 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  give  him  ordination.  The 
letter  announced  that  Lord  Melbourne  "  cannot  advise  the 
King  to  give  any  command  for  controlling  the  judgment 
of  a  bishop  on  the  subject  of  ordination  to  holy  orders." 

"  To  what  position,  then,"  Chalmers  went  on,  "  are  we 
brought  if  we  give  in  to  the  opposite  motion,  and  proceed 
in  consequence   to   the   ordination  of   Mr.  Young  ?     To 


126  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

such  a  position  as  the  bishops  of  England,  with  all  the 
Erastianism  which  has  been  charged,  and  to  a  great  degree 
I  think  falsely  charged,  upon  that  Establishment,  never, 
never  would  consent  to  occupy.  Many  of  them  would  go 
to  the  prison  and  the  death  rather  than  submit  to  such 
an  invasion  on  the  functions  of  the  sacred  office.  Should 
the  emancipation  of  our  Church  require  it,  there  is  the 
same  strength  of  high  and  holy  determination  in  this 
our  land." 

Chalmers's  motion  was  the  modestly  but  manfully 
resolute  intimation  by  the  Church  to  the  State  that,  if 
established  it  all,  she  must  be  established  as  a  Church, 
having  for  prunary,  professional,  inexorable  duty,  obedi- 
ence to  Christ.  Dr.  Cook's  motion  was  the  frankly 
submissive,  undisguisedly  craven,  confession  that  the 
Church  was  not  competent  to  draw  the  line  marking 
off  her  own  professional  province  of  soul  -  healing,  and 
that  the  measures  which  had  embodied  her  reformmg 
ardour  must  be  ignored  as  nonentities. 

Between  Dr.  Cook  and  Dr.  Chalmers,  tenderly  tread- 
ing as  one  who  balanced  himself  on  a  ridge  between  two 
precipices,  came  Dr.  Muir.  The  State  speaks,  and  the  State 
cannot  be  in  the  wrong;  but  the  Church  also  may  be  con- 
siderably in  the  right :  and  if  we  are  justly  compliant  in 
the  performance  of  our  own  duties,  and  truly  obsequious 
with  reference  to  the  duties  of  the  State,  then  all  may  be 
well.  One  could  not  exactly  disagree  with  Dr.  Muir's 
motion, — it  was  too  innocently  platitudinarian  for  that ; 
but  one  instinctively  felt  that  it  would  be  no  brave  man's 
part  to  take  refuge  in  its  evasive  phrases. 

In  this  gathering  of  impassioned  champions  of  Estab- 


THE  CHURCH  TAKES  UP  HER  POSITION.  127 

lishiiient,  however,  there  were  not  a  few  who  would  have 
dearly  prized  any  presentable  excuse  by  which  they  might 
escape  giving  a  decisive  verdict  on  either  side.  Accord- 
ingly the  battle  of  debate  protracted  itself  on  Dr.  Muir's 
motion,  and,  as  the  hours  of  evening  rolled  on  into  the 
night,  the  Assembly  began  to  grow  weary  and  call  for  the 
vote.  It  was  then  that,  in  a  part  of  the  Assembly 
far  from  the  Moderator's  chair,  dimly  seen  below  the 
gallery,  a  member  was  observed  to  rise  and  claim  audience. 
There  was  considerable  reluctance  to  hear  him ;  calls  for 
the  division  were  audible ;  and  it  was  only  when  several, 
who  seemed  to  know  him  and  expect  something  from  him, 
"  shouted  to  give  him  a  hearing,"  that  the  opposition 
became  silent. 

He  came  forward  in  the  direction  of  the  Moderator's 
chair,  "  passing  his  hand  through  his  hair,  as  was  his 
wont  when  he  became  excited,"  and  showing  a  phenomen- 
ally large  development  of  brain.  Who  was  this  ?  Few 
could  tell.  Whispers  went  round  that  he  was  the 
preacher  appointed  not  long  since  to  what  Andrew 
Thomson  had  made  the  first  of  Edinburgh  pulpits,  St. 
George's.  A  superlative  preacher, — that  was  notorious, 
and  his  friends  said  he  was  intellectually  a  giant,  but  he 
was  absolutely  untried  in  the  Courts  of  the  Church, — 
Candlish  they  called  him.  So  ran  the  whispers,  but  they 
would  sink  into  breathless  expectation  when  the  new 
speaker  looked  the  Assembly  in  the  face. 

A  very  short  man,  but  with  a  frame  suggestive  of  great 
strength,  arms  long  as  Rob  Roy's,  hair  shaggy  and  unkempt. 
The  facial  expression  sad  and  lowering,  the  features  almost 
ugly,  the  mouth  large  with  sensitive  lips,  something  in  them 


128  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

of  the  sensitive  child  or  the  pouting  woman.  The  whole 
face  redeemed  into  nobleness  by  the  towering  forehead  and 
the  dominant  expressions  of  elevation  and  intellectuality. 
Not  a  good-looking  man  by-  any  means,  but  as  if  bathed 
in  a  light  of  spiritual  beauty.  He  is  in  the  very  prime 
of  physical  and  mental  strength,  thirty-three  years  of  age  ; 
having  taken  long  to  ripen,  more  ambitious  to  excel  than 
to  shine ;  an  observer,  a  thinker,  a  student,  a  superlative 
preacher,  he  now  comes  to  the  front  because  his  Church 
and  his  country  call  him,  and  because  the  few  who  have 
the  secret  of  his  Herculean  powers  tell  him  that  his  hour 
has  come.  This  is  Robert  Smith  Candlish,  the  Newman 
of  the  Scottish  Church  movement ;  the  man  who,  more 
expressly  than  any  other,  took  the  torch  from  the  hand  of 
Chalmers  when  the  old  leader  fell;  the  most  sincerely 
loved,  the  most  intensely  hated,  the  most  conspicuous, 
and  the  most  representative  of  the  Founders  of  the  Free 
Church. 

He  began  by  putting  aside,  by  mere  lucidity  of  word 
and  accuracy  of  description,  some  of  the  less  important 
mystifications  and  confusions  of  Dr.  Muir's  illusive 
motion.  But  presently  he  moved  into  the  heart  of  the 
question,  bringing  into  glare  of  foreground  light  some 
essential  matters  which  had  been  cautiously  stowed  away 
by  Dr.  Muir  among  masses  of  woolly  phrase.  "  I  have 
a  still  graver  objection  to  the  motion  of  my  respected 
Father.  I  have  looked,  and  I  do  not  find,  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  his  resolutions,  one  single  word 
recognising  the  privileges  of  the  Christian  people.  The 
reverend  Doctor  has  pleaded  for  the  power  of  the  Church, 
— in  its  Courts,  composed  of  its  rulers  and  office-bearers. 


THE  CHURCH  TAKES  UP  HER  POSITION'.  129 

— but  without  securing  and  carrying  out,  along  with 
that  power,  the  rights  of  the  Christian  people.  And 
this,  to  my  mind,  is  substantial  Popery.  It  is  a  position 
which  must  go  far  to  establish  a  system  of  spiritual 
despotism.  In  truth,  it  is  only  when  the  rights  of  the 
people  in  the  Church  of  Christ  are  secured  that  the  power 
of  the  ruling  Courts  can  be  safely  pleaded ;  and  it  is  then, 
also,  that  that  power  can  be  pleaded  to  its  highest  point. 
.  .  .  For  it  is  undoubtedly  the  right  and  duty  of  the 
rulers  in  the  Church  to  moderate  and  control,  with  a 
high  scriptural  authority,  the  movements  of  all  the  other 
parties  who  act  together  in  this  matter." 

Here  is  the  case  of  Presbyterianism  in  a  nutshell, 
as  against  the  Roman  and  Anglican  system  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  systems  which  deny  all  jurisdiction  to  the 
aggregate  of  congregations  on  the  other.  To  separate 
the  people  from  the  Church,  or  the  Church  from  the 
people,  is  to  misconceive  the  very  nature  of  the  Church. 
"  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  unto  the  least  of  these, 
ye  did  it  not  unto  ]\Ie."  In  every  Christian  there  is 
a  living  Christ.  This,  we  must  always  repeat,  is  the  real 
presence.  It  was  his  realisation  of  this  that  made  Luther's 
religion  at  once  so  Divine  and  so  human.  Hence,  though 
opposing  the  insurgent  peasants,  he  acknowledged  the 
soundness  of  their  claim,  that  the  congregation  {Gcmeindc) 
should  cho(ise  its  own  minister.  The  instincts  of  the 
spiritual  life  — the  cravings  of  the  indwelling  Christ — 
cannot  be  scheduled  in  any  dcjcumentary  form  for  general 
inspection.  If  the  flock  declares  the  ministrations  of  the 
patron's  nominee  to  be  unedifying,  that  is  enough.  He 
shall  not  l)e  intruded  on  them.  On  the  other  hand, 
9 


130  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

according  to  the  Presliyterian  theory,  the  flock  is  to  have 
all  the  advantage  which  the  wisdom  and  experience  of 
the  Church  as  a  whole  can  afford  them.  As  a  free  State 
is  not  a  State  without  order,  without  law,  without  dis- 
cipline, so  a  free  Church  is  not  an  anarchic  multitude 
of  congregations,  but  an  aggregate  of  congregations  in 
fellowship  with  each  other,  under  a  common  jurisdiction, 
benefited  by  the  Christian  wisdom  of  the  whole.  The 
Church  can  have  no  interest  apart  from  the  spiritual 
interests  of  the  people.  Presbyteries,  Synods,  Assembly, 
exercise  their  office  for  the  people. 

"  We  have  simply,"  said  Candlish,  drawing  his  speech 
to  a  conclusion,  "  to  submit  to  our  people  this  plain  and 
palpable  alternative :  Will  you  have  us  submit  without 
a  struggle  and  without  an  effort  to  a  system  of  patronage 
the  most  arbitrary  and  unrestricted, — to  a  system  of 
patronage  which,  but  for  the  milder  temper  of  the  days 
in  which  we  live,  might  bring  back  those  melancholy 
times  when,  not  ministers  in  their  robes,  but  bands  of 
armed  men,  introduced  the  pastor  to  his  people  ?  Will 
you  submit,  or  will  you  have  ns  to  submit,  to  that  iron 
yoke  which  your  fathers  were  unable  to  bear, — or  will 
you  give  us  your  sympathies  and  your  prayers  while  we 
stand  up  for  the  rightful  power  of  the  Church  of  Christ, 
and  assert  at  once  and  together  our  prerogatives  as  the 
rulers,  and  your  liberties  as  the  people ;  while  we  go 
respectfully  but  manfully  to  the  other  party  in  the  con- 
tract by  which  we  are  established,  to  the  State, — to  the 
authorities  of  the  nation, — testifying  to  them  what  is 
their  duty,  and  soliciting  them  to  the  performance  of  it  ? 
I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that,  when  the  question  is  thus 


THE  CHURCH  TAKES  UP  HER  POSITION.  131 

put,  it  will  be  fully  and  cordially  and  unanimously 
answered  throughout  all  our  parishes.  But  if  the 
trumpet  give  an  uncertain  sound, — if  we  merely  assert 
the  rights  of  the  rulers  in  the  Church,  while  we  sacrifice 
or  hold  in  abeyance  the  people's  liberties, — it  will  Ije  no 
wonder  if  we  have  not — we  shall  not  deserve  to  have — 
with  us  the  heart  or  the  prayers  of  one  single  man  who 
is  worthy  of  the  name  of  Scotsman.  I  rejoice,  then, 
Moderator,  amid  all  our  difficulties,  in  the  prominency 
which  must  now  be  given  to  this  great  element  in  our 
question,  the  standing  which  the  Christian  people  have 
in  the  settlement  of  their  pastors.  We  shall  rally  our 
countrymen  once  more,  now  that  the  old  banner  is  again 
broadly  displayed — the  banner  which  we  find  fully  and 
clearly  inscribed — Cicsar's  crown  indeed,  l:)ut  along  with 
it  and  not  less  clearly  or  less  fully,  underneath  Christ's 
crown,  and  shielded  liy  it — the  purchased  liberties  of  His 
redeemed  people." 

It  was  a  solemn  hour  when  the  speech  of  which  these 
few  sentences  may  convey  some  idea  rang  out  in  its  clear- 
ness, its  earnestness,  its  threefold  elevation  of  thought, 
feeling,  and  language,  upon  the  Assembly.  This  was 
no  mere  ambitious  young  cleric,  like  our  bluff  friend 
Begg  at  twenty-three,  giving  a  taste  of  his  quality  to  the 
men  of  established  reputation.  The  ablest  men  in  the 
Assembly,  Cunningham,  Guthrie,  Begg  himself,  as  they 
looked  with  admu-ation  on  this  new  speaker,  felt  that 
he  was  of  the  transcendent  sort,  a  leader  among  leaders. 
As  the  tones  of  Candlish  penetrated,  with  metallic  clang, 
to  the  remotest  corners  of  the  Assembly,  it  was  felt  that 
a  new  act  was   opening  in  the  drama,  that  a   new  and 


132      THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

mighty  actor  had  stepped  upon  the  stage.  But  Candlish 
was  as  modest  as  he  was  great,  and  sought  no  higher 
honour  than  to  be  the  loyal  lieutenant  of  Chalmers. 

The  motions  of  Dr.  Cook  and  of  Dr.  Muir  were  swept 
away.  That  of  Dr.  Chalmers  was  carried.  The  Church 
had  taken  up  her  position,  and  witli  studious  respectful- 
ness to  the  State,  had  defined  it.  The  endowments 
might  be  confiscated,  and  yet  the  Estabhshment  mig-lit 
stand.  But  the  Church  could  not  be  false  to  her  Divine 
ideal.  She  could  not  fail  in  duty  to  Christ  her  King. 
She  could  not  cease  to  guard  the  liberties  of  Christ's 
people.  Would  the  State,  by  trying  to  force  her  to  do 
these,  compel  her  to  leave  the  Establishment  ? 


CHAPTEE  XVI. 
t-^e  (^gtfafton  deepening— ^^e  **  nJJifnesB." 

THE  heroic  age  is  always  with  us  if  we  only  have  the 
glow  of  heroes;  and  in  1839,  both  before  and  still 
more  after  that  midnight  meeting  of  Assembly  at  which 
Candlish,  like  a  new  star,  suddenly  cleft  the  gloom,  the 
old  heroic  fire  was  making  its  presence  felt  in  Scotland. 
Not  once  or  twice  in  her  eventful  history  has  "  glory " 
lit  lier  path.  Her  struggle  for  independence  against 
overwhelming  odds  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century  drew  on  her  the  eyes  of  Europe,  and  the  spear- 
men of  Bannockburn  were  enrolled  with  the  men  of 
Marathon  and  the  men  of  Morgarten  among  those  in 
whose  praise  mothers  sing  ditties  to  their  boys.  Again, 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  she  had  the  rare  honour  be- 
stowed upon  her  ])y  God  of  standing  out  before  the 
nations,  and  solemnly  uprearing  the  standard  of  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church,  as  distinguished  from  that  of  the 
Eoman  Catholic,  then  terrible  with  the  strength  of 
youthful  Jesuitism,  and  that  of  the  Tudor-Catholic  raised 
by  Henry,  and  resolutely  held  by  Elizabeth.  A  revolu- 
tion, occupying  two  centuries,  was  then  being  unrolled. 


134  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

and  there  were  confusions  and  mino-linffs  and  tumults 
innumerable.  It  could  not  fail  that  the  work  most 
appropriate  to  statesmen  should  sometimes  be  effected 
by  Churchmen,  and  that  the  work  strictly  belong- 
ing to  the  State  should  sometimes,  in  practice  if  not 
in  theory,  be  done  by  the  Church.  But  the  mam  fact 
stands  out  impregnable,  that  it  was  at  the  call  of  her 
local  Church,  speaking  as  part  of  the  Church  of  all 
nations,  that  Scotland  rose  into  heroic  mood,  and  that 
the  watchwords  of  her  witnessing  to  Christ's  crown 
mingled  with  the  march-music  of  mankind,  the  hum  and 
movement  of  the  great  westward -going  procession  of 
civilisation. 

He  who  was  a  Scottish  boy  in  that  summer  of 
1839  and  the  summers  immediately  succeeding,  will 
remember  how  the  old  inspiration  thrilled  the  land.  No 
agitation  so  intense  in  its  serenity,  so  noble  in  its  eleva- 
tion, so  devout  in  its  spirit,  has  smce  occurred.  The 
spectacle  of  the  old  Church,  making  herself  visible  through 
the  resplendency  of  the  indwelling  Christ,  smitten  sorely 
by  the  archers  only  Z^(?m»sf  of  theburnmgof  the  spirit  and 
the  life  within  her,  set  the  chords  of  sympathy  vibrating 
in  ten  thousand  bosoms. 

In  remote  Cromarty,  Hugh  Miller  found  sleep  fly  his 
pillow,  while  his  thoughts,  wildly  at  work,  traced  as  in 
zigzags  of  lightning  the  outlines  of  that  memorable 
Letter  which  he  addressed  to  Lord  Brougham.  In  "  broad 
Scotland "  tliere  was  no  man  who  knew  his  country 
better,  no  man  more  patriotically  and  intelligently  proud 
of  Scotland,  or  of  whom  Scotland  had  juster  cause  to 
be    proud,   than    the    Cromarty   stone  -  cutter.      Unique 


THE  AGITATION  DEEPENING — THE  "  WITNESS.''    135 

among;  self-educated  workmen  in  the  breadth,  the  cahn- 
ness,  the  moral  purity,  and  the  philosophical  balance  of 
his  ideas,  was  Hugh  Miller ;  one  of  the  few  Scotchmen 
who  have  written  an  English  style  that  Addison  hunself 
might  have  pronounced  classical ;  a  masterly  observer  in 
science,  and  a  scientific  describer  whose  powers  were 
looked  upon  by  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison  with  admirmg 
despau". 

He  was  the  man  of  all  others  to  appreciate  at  its 
true  worth  and  importance  the  stress  laid  by  Candlish 
on  the  right  of  congregations  to  have  no  pastor  forced 
upon  them.  "  There  does  not  exist " — the  words  are 
Hugh  Miller's — "  a  tenderer  or  more  enduring  tie  among 
all  the  various  relationships  which  knit  together  the 
human  family,  than  that  which  binds  the  gospel  minister 
to  his  people."  From  his  sleepless  couch  he  rose  to 
fling  upon  paper,  in  passionate  splendour  of  language, 
his  Letter  to  Lord  Brougham,  finishing  it  in  one  week. 
He  told  his  Lordship  how  he  felt  on  the  subject  of  his 
Church.  "  To  no  man  do  I  yield  in  the  love  and  respect 
which  I  bear  to  the  Church  of  Scotland.  I  never  signed 
the  Confession  of  her  Faith,  but  I  do  more, — I  believe 
it ;  and  I  deem  her  scheme  of  government  at  once  the 
simplest  and  most  practically  beneficial  that  has  been 
established  since  the  time  of  the  apostles.  But  it  is 
the  vital  spirit,  not  the  dead  body,  to  which  I  am 
attached ;  it  is  to  the  free  popular  Church,  established  by 
our  Keformers,  not  to  an  inisubstantial  form  or  an  empty 
name, — a  mere  creature  of  expediency  and  the  State ; 
and  had  she  so  far  fallen  below  my  feeling  of  her  dignity 
and  excellence  as  to  have  acquiesced  in  your  Lordship's 


136      THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

decision,  the  leaf  holds  not  more  loosely  liy  the  tree 
•  when  the  October  wind  blows  highest,  than  I  would  have 
'  held  by  a  Church  so  sunk  and  degraded." 

The  Letter  containing  these  words,  and  others  of  a 
like  purport,  was  forwarded  in  manuscript  by  Miller  to 
Mr.  Itobert  Paul,  an  Edinburgh  banker,  who  happened 
also  to  be  a  friend  and  a  sympathetic  fellow-Churchman 
of  our  new  lieutenant  of  Chalmers  who  electrified  the 
Assembly  at  midnight.  It  had  occurred  to  Candlish  and 
other  discerning  persons,  that  the  Church,  amid  her 
tribulation  from  Erastian  lawyers  and  godless  journalists, 
might  derive  advantage  from  a  reasonable,  judiciously- 
conducted,  well -written  newspaper,  which  should  state 
her  case  fairly  and  fully.  The  difficulty  was  to  find  an 
editor.  Mr.  Paul,  meeting  Candlish  on  the  street,  asked 
hmi  to  read  the  manuscript  which  Miller  had  sent  him. 
In  his  study,  in  a  fagged  and  listless  hour,  Candlish 
began  to  glance  over  it.  "I  began  to  read  it" — the 
story  comes  best  from  his  own  pen — "  in  a  thoroughly 
indifferent  mood.  I  never  can  forget  the  rapture — for 
it  was  nothing  short  of  that — into  which  the  first  pages 
threw  me.  I  finished  the  reading;  in  a  state  of  great 
excitement ;  so  much  so,  that,  though  it  was  late,  I  could 
not  rest  till  I  had  hastened  with  the  manuscript  to  Mr. 
Dunlop,  beseeching  him  to  read  it  that  very  night.  The 
following  day  Mr.  Dunlop  and  I  met  with  Mr.  Paul  and 
a  few  friends,  and  either  then,  or  within  a  day  or  two 
thereafter,  it  was  agreed  to  ask  Mr.  Miller  to  become 
editor  of  the  Witness  newspaper,  then  about  to  be  started." 

Within  a  few  weeks,  accordingly,  of  this  meeting, 
the    first    number    of    the    newspaper    appeared.       The 


THE  AGITATION  DEEPENING THE  "  WITNESS."    137 

Witness  at  once  assumed  a  place  of  influence  and  dis- 
tinction among  the  organs  of  public  opinion  in  Scotland. 
Hugh  Miller's  powers  had  ripened  late,  but  they  were 
now  in  perfect  maturity  as  well  as  perfectly  fresh  and 
unexhausted.  No  man  loved  Scotland  more  fervently 
than  he,  no  man  knew  her  history  with  more  intelligent 
and  sympathetic  apprehension,  no  mind  was  so  opulently 
stored  as  his  with  the  imagery  of  her  shores  and  hill- 
ranges,  or  with  the  noblest  traditions  of  her  people. 
But  if  we  will  realise  the  full  and  peculiar  greatness  of 
Hugh  Miller,  we  must  understand  that,  while  one  of  the 
shrewdest  and  most  circumspect  of  practical  thinkers,  he 
saw,  in  the  characteristic  claim  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land to  exercise  self-government  in  the  name  of  Christ, 
no  vague  theological  dogma,  no  visionary  fancy  sub- 
versive of  civil  government,  no  Popery,  no  sacerdotalism, 
but  the  simple  and  sole  method  of  applying  Christ's 
New  Testament  law  to  the  management,  in  spiritual  con- 
cerns, of  Christ's  Church.  He  was  the  man  to  laugh  to 
scorn  the  stupid  charges  of  usurpation  and  tyranny, 
which  flippant  and  superficial  persons  always  bring 
against  an  energetic,  living,  growmg,  self  -  reforming 
Church,  He  was  the  man  to  make  the  people  willing 
in  the  day  of  the  Church's  power.  His  name  soon  rang 
through  the  households  of  Scotland ;  and  his  paper 
carried  enthusiasm  for  the  struggHng  Church  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth. 

It  was  among  the  chief  advantages  for  Hugh  Miller, 
in  beginning  to  edit  the  Witness,  that  he  was  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  the  character  of  the  leading  minds 
among  the  clergy  of  Scotland,  and  perfectly  knew  and 


138  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

could  sympathetically  respond  to  the  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings of  the  best  rehgious  society.  The  two  men  of  whom 
he  spoke  as  having  done  most  to  form  his  own  character 
were  Chalmers  and  Stewart  of  Cromarty.  The  latter 
was  an  exception  to  Scottish  preachers  in  general,  from 
the  quietness  of  his  manner,  and  had  something  in  him 
of  the  nature  of  a  recluse,  not  witliout  indolence  and 
almost  averse  to  fame.  But  in  rehgion  he  was  utterly 
in  earnest ;  and,  being  in  earnest,  and  possessed  of  a  subtly 
inventive  intellect  and  vivid  imagination,  he  could  not 
possibly  handle  Bible  themes  without  betraying  his 
originality.  Put  the  Bible  into  a  man's  hand,  and  bid 
him  preach  you  a  sermon,  and  you  will  find  him  out. 
If  he  is  a  Bunyan,  or  a  Spurgeon,  or  a  Stewart,  he 
cannot  preach  from  the  Bible  and  continue  unknown. 
From  remote  Cromarty,  Stewart's  fame  pervaded  Scotland. 
Next  to  Chalmers  and  Candlish,  he  was  known  to  be  the 
most  remarkable  preacher  in  the  Church.  Miller  knew 
him  in  close  colloquy,  and  thus  had  the  full  advantage 
of  his  influence.  But  his  shy  and  retiring  nature  kept 
Stewart,  so  long  as  his  sense  of  duty  was  at  rest,  in 
the  secluded  freedom  of  Cromarty,  out  of  the  afflictive 
dazzlements  of  a  city  pulpit.  Years  hence,  when  many 
changes  had  taken  place,  and  Candlish  was  wanted  for 
other  than  pulpit  work,  and  Scotland  was  searched  for  one 
to  take  his  place,  all  eyes  gradually  turned  to  Cromarty. 
Stewart  was  called  to  become  pastor  of  what,  under  Andrew 
Thomson  and  Candlish,  had  become  one  of  the  noisiest 
congregations  in  Christendom.  Such  a  call  seemed 
providential,  and  the  tenderly  conscientious  Stewart 
feared  to  disobey  it.     But  he  said  that  the  thought  of 


THE  AGITATION  DEErENING THE  "  WITNESS."    139 

Edinburgh  pressed  on  him  like  a  gravestone,  and,  shortly 
before  he  was  to  have  left  Cromarty,  he  was  fomid  dead 
in  his  bed. 

We  may  look  upon  it  as  one  of  the  most  splendid 
services  of  Candlish  to  the  cause,  that  he  so  promptly 
enlisted  Miller  into  the  vanguard  of  the  Church's  host. 
It  was  the  first  proof — or  at  least  the  first  that  made 
itself  conspicuous  to  all  the  world — rendered  by  Candlish 
of  his  superb  quality  as  a  party  leader.  Chalmers  was 
by  genius  and  character  the  kind  of  man  who  does 
not  succeed  in  generalship,  and,  in  the  present  instance, 
he  was  not  without  a  certain  feeling  of  distrust  in 
relation  to  the  popular  aspects  of  the  conflict.  He  held, 
and  held  justly,  that  mere  election  by  the  people,  without 
patron  or  Presbytery,  was  no  ideal  method  of  settling 
ministers.  He  had  no  tincture  in  his  composition  of 
enthusiasm  for  the  natural  man,  though  profoundly 
reverent  of  Christian  democracy.  "  I  am  sickened  to 
despair,"  was  his  cry,  when  he  feared  that  the  Church  was 
to  bring  out  the  big  drum  to  call  the  rabble  to  her  aid. 

While,  therefore,  there  w^as  no  one  who  could  appre- 
ciate Hugh  Miller  better  than  Chalmers,  no  one  who  could 
do  him  more  ample  justice,  whether  as  a  literary  artist 
or  as  a  man  of  massive  sense  and  of  sincere  religion,  no 
one  who  could  value  the  Witness  more  when  he  saw  it  at 
work,  yet  there  was  a  nuance  of  difference,  in  respect  of 
liberahsm,  between  Chalmers  and  the  two  extraordinary 
men  who  now  joined  hands  to  assist  him  in  the  fray. 
The  emergence  of  Candlish  into  a  commanding  position 
in  the  Assembly,  the  advent  of  Miller  as  an  influential 
journalist    in     Edinburgh,    signalised     the    accession    of 


140      THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

powerful  elements  of  a  popular  nature  to  the  moving 
forces  on  the  side  of  the  Chiu-ch.  It  was  almost  with  bated 
breath  that  Dr.  Chalmers,  the  world-renowned  champion  of 
Church  Establishments,  had  referred  to  patronage.  The 
stone  -  mason,  in  his  Letter  to  Lord  Brougham,  spoke 
plainly  enough  on  this  point.  "  With  many  thousands  of 
my  countrymen,  I  have  been  accustomed  to  ask,  Where 
is  the  place  which  patronage  occupies  in  this  Church  of 
the  people  and  of  Christ  ?  I  read  in  the  First  Book  of 
Discipline  (as  drawn  up  by  Knox  and  his  brethren),  that 
'  no  man  should  enter  the  ministry  without  a  lawful 
vocation ;  and  that  a  lawful  vocation  standeth  in  the 
election  of  the,  people,  examination  of  the  ministry,  and 
admission  of  them  both.' "  Our  readers,  if  they  recall 
the  glimpse  we  took  into  the  Institutio  of  Calvin,  will  not 
be  at  a  loss  to  perceive  where  Calvin's  esteemed  friend 
and  fellow-worker  Knox  found  the  suggestion  of  this 
arrangement. 

Miller  is  careful  to  make  it  clear  that  what  the  people 
demand  is  no  mere  right  to  schedule  objections,  and 
to  have  their  relevancy  or  irrelevancy  adjudicated  on 
by  lawyers  or  ministers,  but  to  express,  in  so  far 
as  rejection  goes,  their  will.  On  this  point  he  shuts 
out  by  italics  the  possibility  of  mistake.  "  We  chal- 
lenge, as  our  right,  liberty  of  rejection  without  statement 
of  reasons."  A  minister  is  loved  and  trusted  for  positive 
qualities,  and  if  these  are  not  present,  though  no  shadow 
of  accusation  may  attach  to  their  absence,  the  congre- 
gation reject  him.  "  We  look  in  him  for  qualities  which 
we  can  love,  powers  which  we  can  respect,  graces  wliicli 
we  can  revere.      It  matters  not  that  we  should  have  no 


THE  AGITATION  DEEPENING THE  "  WITNESS."    141 

grounds  on  wliich  to  condemn  :  we  are  justified  in  our 
rejection  if  we  cannot  approve." 

The  Letter,  whether  it  influenced  or  failed  to  influence 
Lord  Brougham,  was  read  not  only  by  thousands  in  Scot- 
land, but  by  not  a  few  open-minded,  forward-looking 
persons  in  England,  one  of  these  being  Mr.  Gladstone. 
It  is  known  that  he  was  profoundly  impressed  by  the 
men  who  were  then  conspicuous  as  defenders  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  But  he  lay  under  the  spell  of 
Newman,  and  he  had  a  long  way  to  traverse — may  it  be 
hoped  that  he  has  traversed  it  now  ? — before  attaining 
to  the  point  in  Christian  evolution  which  had  been 
reached,  in  1839,  by  Miller  and  by  Candlish. 

At  the  time  when  the  publication  of  the  Witness 
began,  there  were  sixty-three  newspapers  issued  in  Scot- 
land, and  all  except  eight  were  hostile  to  the  Eeforming 
party  in  the  Church.  Miller  had  done  a  good  deal  pre- 
viously in  pamphleteering,  and  his  letters  on  the  Herring 
Fishery  had  enabled  Carruthers,  the  biographer  of  Pope 
and  felicitous  editor  of  the  Inverness  Courier,  to  perceive 
that  a  prose  writer  of  great  power  had  arisen.  His 
literary  skill  charmed  the  Edinburgh  people,  and  won 
golden  plaudits  from  Jeffrey,  while  his  hard  hits  and 
knack  of  getting  "  the  laughers "  on  his  side  recalled 
his  triumphs  as  a  pamphleteer.  "  Eival  editors,"  says 
one  who  worked  with  him  in  those  days,  "  he  tomahawked 
and  scalped."  He  carried  the  fastidiousness  of  the 
stylist  into  newspaper  composition,  making  laborious 
corrections,  "  speaking  out  to  himself  as  he  wrote,  and 
trying  every  sentence  upon  his  ear,  as  a  money-changer 
weighs  a  piece  of  gold  on   his  practised  finger-tip."     So 


142  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

severe  was  his  labour, — so  passionate  was  his  absorp- 
tion in  his  great  enterprise,  —  that  "  I  can  never," 
he  used  to  say,  "  remember  the  names  of  my  fossils  on 
publication  days  till  about  tea-time,  when  they  begin  to 
come  back  to  me,  reappearing  to  memory  like  letters 
written  in  invisible  ink  when  you  hold  the  paper  to 
the  fire." 

Among  the  laymen  of  Scotland,  no  one  contributed 
so  much  to  the  advocacy  of  the  Church's  cause  as  Hugh 
Miller.  Words  from  his  pen,  telling,  epithets,  expressive 
similitudes,  forceful  and  lucid  arguments,  would  obviously, 
as  has  been  well  remarked,  be  caught  up  by  speakers 
at  public  meetings,  and  echo  from  platform  to  platform 
throughout  Scotland.  The  paper,  says  Mr.  Landreth, 
was  "  a  peacock's  tail,  for  supplying  party-plumes  and 
ornaments."  Never,  probably,  in  the  history  of  journal- 
ism, has  a  party  been  better  served  by  an  organ  of 
public  opinion  than  was  that  which  took  the  lead  in  the 
Church  of  Scotland  during  her  conflict  with  the  State  by 
the  Witness  under  the  editorship  of  Hugh  Miller. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
t^e  (giee  of  Canbfie^^ 

"ITTE  return  to  Candlish.  That  speech  in  the  Assembly 
'  ^  of  1839  was  a  revelation  to  many  ;  but  there  were 
a  few  who  had  marked  him  from  afar  as  one  who  was 
sure,  when  his  time  came,  to  be  the  observed  of  all 
observers.  An  Edinburgh  man  by  birth,  he  had  an  intel- 
lectual affinity  for  that  Athenian  place,  and  during  his 
whole  career  shone  as  a  distinctively  Edinburghian 
celebrity.  All  the  same,  he  w^as  bred  and  educated  in 
Glasgow,  and  his  blood  allied  him  to  Galloway  and 
Ayrshire. 

His  father,  James  Candlish,  between  whom  and  himself 
there  were  points  of  peculiar  physiological  resemblance, 
was  a  man  of  great  braui  power,  ardent  in  his  patriotic 
sentiments,  and  devoted  to  the  minstrelsy  of  Scotland. 
Burns  addressed  him  as  "  my  ever  dear  old  acquaintance." 
Too  speculative  theologically  for  the  Church,  he  chose 
another  vocation,  and  became  a  consummate  teacher  of 
medicine.  One  day,  when  forty-six  years  of  age,  he  was 
making  a  speech  to  the  Royal  Medical  Society,  and  felt 
a  queer  sensation  "  as  if  his  head  would  have  burst,"  or 


144      THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

as  if  the  brain  had  been  "  too  big  for  the  skull."  He 
went  home,  and  before  midnight  was  dead.  Five  weeks 
afterwards  his  son  Robert  Smith  Candlish  was  bom.  The 
"  Smith "  came  from  the  mother's  side,  who  belonged 
to  Ayrshire.  Among  the  immortal  belles  of  ^Mauchline 
she  is  distinguished  as  the  Miss  Smith  who  had  "  wit ;  ' 
and  one  who  knew  her  informs  us  that  the  first  glance 
at  her  "  firm  mouth,  and  eyes  which  seemed  to  see  one 
through  and  through,"  proved  con^'inciugly  that  the 
characterisation  in  this  instance  carried  with  it  the 
accuracy  and  suggestiveness  common  to  those  of  Bums. 
With  the  gentleness  and  lo\'ing-ldndness  of  a  devoted 
mother,  she  combined  the  qualities  which  are  of  most 
price  in  fathers,  an  admirably  methodic  habit,  and  "  an 
authority  which,  in  the  quietest  conceivable  way,  was 
absolute,  decisive,  and  iudisputable."  She  was  the  object 
of  her  son's  most  tender  affection  and  loyal  and  reveren- 
tial trust.  If  his  father  gave  him  his  towering  brain,  it 
may  have  been  still  more  to  his  mother  that  he  owed  his 
diamond-like  lucency  of  expression,  and  that  incomparable 
faculty  for  business,  which  seems  to  have  amazed  some 
good  judges  even  more  than  his  gifts  of  speech. 

^Irs.  Candlish,  greatly  straitened  in  circumstances  after 
her  husband's  death,  opened  a  school  for  girls  ia  Glasgow, 
and  a  lady  who  was  one  of  her  pupils  has  put  on  record 
her  memories  of  our  Candlish  when  a  boy  of  eight.  He 
was  a  j>eculiar,  not  to  say  queer-looking  child,  with  large 
forehead  and  small  body,  delicate  fair  complexion,  and 
very  long  eyelashes.  Interesting,  doubtless,  but  ex^dently 
impressing  some  people  with  a  sense  of  oddness,  for  im- 
complimentary  remarks  were  made,  and  one  day  a  lady 


THE  RISE  OF  CANDLISH.  145 

rather  wounded  the  little  man's  pride  by  giving  him  a 
penny, — as  if  he  had  been  a  poor  little  hydrocephalous 
object,  or,  as  he  himself  inquiringly  suggested  to  his 
mother,  a  beggar.  His  mother  and  a  brother  and  sister 
were  his  educators,  until  he  went,  at  thirteen,  to  Glasgow 
University. 

Despite  his  boyish  years,  he  distinguished  himself 
greatly,  taking  an  ample  share  of  honours  during  five 
successive  sessions.  He  was  high  in  favour  with  his 
professors,  and  ardently  admired  and  looked  upon  as  a 
leader  by  his  fellow-students,  as  well  as  almost  reverenced 
for  "  purity  of  thought  and  unconscious  sanctity  of 
character."  His  readmg  ranged  beyond  his  College 
course,  and  he  delighted  in  Shakespeare.  "  In  dis- 
position he  was  impatient,  yet  persevering ;  versatile, 
yet  persistent ;  sensitive,  and  sometimes  irritable ;  but 
always  kind,  manly,  generous."  No  period  can  be  fixed 
upon  to  date  the  beginning  of  his  religious  life ;  but  one 
who  may  be  trusted  expresses  the  belief  that  it  com- 
menced in  "  very  early  years,"  and  says  that  during  his 
undergraduate  career  he  was  characterised  by  a  "  spiritu- 
ality "  so  "  dominant  and  habitual,"  as  to  suggest  its 
having  grown  up  with  him  and  become  to  him  "  as  the 
breath  of  life."  So  early  in  the  century  as  1826,  when 
in  his  twentieth  year,  we  find  him,  from  sheer  force  of 
mother  wit,  anticipating  what,  after  infinite  disputation, 
has  now  become  the  judgment  of  all  sensible  men  on 
Mosaic  geology.  The  very  words,  "  Mosaic  geology," 
he  disallows.  "  Is  there,"  he  asks,  "  any  geology  at  all  in 
Moses  ?  or  are  his  works  intended  to  teach  us  matters 
of   science  ?      Nothing   seems    to   me   more   absurd   and 

lO 


146       THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

dangerous  than  to  implicate  revelation  at  all  in  disputes 
on  subjects  not  in  the  least  connected  with  religion,  and 
on  subjects,  moreover,  when  speaking  on  which  the 
Scriptures  must  have  accommodated  themselves  to  the 
opinions  and  language  of  the  day,  and  on  which,  in  fact, 
they  can  scarcely  with  any  propriety  be  said  to  have 
advocated  any  theory  at  all." 

In  this  same  year,  a  request  being  addressed  to  some 
of  the  Glasgow  professors  for  "  the  most  able  yovmg  man 
they  could  recommend,"  to  act  as  tutor  at  Eton  to  Sir 
Hugh  Hume  Campbell  of  Marchmont,  the  offer  was  made 
to  Candlisli  and  accepted.  In  his  twenty-first  year 
accordingly  he  is  installed  at  Eton,  and  makes  his  observa- 
tions upon  the  new  world  thus  opened  to  hun.  He  is 
one  of  about  thirty  tutors,  "  some  Fellows  of  Cambridge, 
and  many  of  them  clergymen."  He  thinks  them  "  in 
general,  very  pleasant  men,"  but  feels  the  want  of  a 
"friend"  accentuating  that  lack  of  sympathy  which  a 
kindly  Scot  is  likely  to  experience  amid  the  cold  cour- 
tesies of  English  acquaintance.  He  pronounces  in  favour 
of  the  Scottish  system  of  blending,  in  education,  the 
home  influence  and  the  school  influence,  as  against  the 
EngHsh  system  of  herding  men  with  men — through  pre- 
paratory school,  public  school.  College,  Parliament,  and  club 
— from  cradle  to  grave.  "  Upon  the  whole,  I  cannot  avoid 
preferring  that  mixtm^e  of  public  instruction  and  domestic 
superintendence  which  forms  the  system  of  our  Univer- 
sities. A  boy  is  much  more  likely  to  do  good  when  he 
spends  his  evenings  with  his  friends,  or  with  those  whom 
his  friends  have  appointed,  than  when  he  is  exposed  to 
the  temptations  of  idle  companions."     He  has  an  eye  for 


THE  RISE  OF  CANDLISH.  147 

the  sweet  spring  scenery  of  southern  England,  but  never 
lapses  into  the  view-hunting  flowery  vein.  "  If  I  had 
room  I  would  expatiate  upon  the  beauties  of  the  country 
here.      The  hawthorn  is  just  budding." 

He  takes  a  keen  interest  in  public  matters,  and  his 
voice  is  clear  for  freedom,  sympathy,  and  toleration. 
Hopes  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  petitioning  against  the 
Test  Act,  will  demand  relief  not  merely  for  "  Presby- 
terian Dissenters,"  but  for  all.  Wishes  the  Church  would 
petition  also  for  CathoHc  Emancipation.  "  Why  will 
Churchmen  always  be  behind  their  fellow-citizens  in 
learning  to  advocate  the  cause  of  religious  freedom  ? " 
A  true  note  of  Scottish  as  distinguished  from  English 
ecclesiasticism  !  Once  the  question  of  Church  patronage 
turns  up.  "  The  law,  as  it  is  now  (1827)  administered, 
undoubtedly  requires  revision."  He  hesitates  as  to  the 
total  abolition  of  patronage,  but  would  render  the  sale  of 
livings  illegal,  fixing  the  charge  upon  the  land.  "  If 
possible," — he  says,  with  pathetic  interest  for  us  who 
read  his  history  by  the  light  of  the  intervenmg  years, — 
"  I  should  like  to  see  some  inm^c  effectual  check  than  there 
is  at  present  on  the  fart  of  the  2^^02jle  upon  its  abuse." 
He  did  not  know  where  to  insert  the  italics  in  this 
sentence ;  tvc  do. 

There  was  little  in  the  outset  of  his  ministerial  life 
to  forecast  his  future.  Of  the  commonplace  badges  of 
evangelical  sanctity  he  had  absolutely  none,  and  his  fine 
culture  and  generous  tolerance,  aided,  perhaps,  by  his 
fondness  for  the  works  of  Barrow  and  appreciation  of  the 
Anglican  Service,  and  coinciding  with  his  early  connection 
as  assistant  with  one  or  two  Moderates,  contriljuted  to 


148  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

put  about  a  whisper,  entirely  fallacious,  that  he  was  huu- 
self  inclined  to  that  side  in  the  Church.  At  one 
moment  it  seemed  that  he  might  take  flight  for  Canada, 
and  he  made  a  narrow  miss  of  Regent's  Square  Church 
in  London.  At  first  the  huge -headed,  short -bodied, 
broad-shouldered  young  preacher,  who,  child  and  man, 
had  always  something  about  him  to  suggest  that  nature 
had  struck  him  off  in  a  humorous  mood  as  a  magnificent 
grotesque,  did  not  appear  to  be  at  home  in  the  pulpit. 
"  He  had  an  awkward  way  of  habitually  shrugging  up 
one  shoulder,  which  gave  him  almost  a  deformed  look." 
His  voice  was  not  yet  tuned  to  public  speaking,  and  in 
his  bursts  of  passionate  climax  it  would  become  a  "  scream 
or  even  screech."  Then  his  "  gesticulation"  was  inchoate. 
There  were  what  a  lady  suggestively  called  "  such  nervous 
varieties."  Twitchings  of  face,  to  wit,  clutchings  and 
pullings  about  of  pulpit  habiliments.  "  If  I  were  his 
wife,"  adds  the  aforesaid  lady,  "  I  would  make  his  waist- 
coat and  his  gown  fit  better ;  they  were  never  doing 
their  duty  to  his  satisfaction."  Was  it  a  pulpit  Apollo 
that  the  audience  saw  before  them,  or  was  it  a  Dominie 
Samson  ? 

Never  fear,  said  the  knowing  ones,  he  will  come  right. 
Gradually  the  harshness  left  the  voice,  the  jerkiness  of 
its  transitions  gave  way  to  a  noble  modulation,  and  ere 
long  it  rang  forth  with  the  clearness  of  a  clarion  peal,  or 
rolled  like  the  thunder  of  the  breakers  on  a  storm-beat 
shore.  The  twitchings  of  feature  subsided.  And  as  for 
the  matter  of  the  preaching,  you  found,  when  you  listened 
well,  that  there  had  been  nothing  like  it  in  Scotland 
since  Chalmers  was  young.     It  was  Puritan,  yet  Puritan- 


THE  RISE  OF  C AND  LIS  H.  149 

ism  spiritualised,  transformed,  transfigured.  "  Very  soon," 
says  one  who  listened  to  Candlish  in  those  years, — "  very 
soon  I  felt  with  everybody  else  that  a  great  preacher  had 
appeared,  and  that  a  new  era  was  coming  in  for  the 
Scottish  pulpit." 

Accordingly,  in  that  time  of  distress  and  dismay, 
when  every  face  you  met  on  Edinburgh  streets  looked 
sad,  and  Chalmers,  coming  into  his  class-room  as  usual, 
"  broke  down  in  the  first  sentence  of  his  lecture,  and 
rushed  out  bathed  in  tears,"  because  Andrew  Thomson 
had  fallen,  it  was  none  other  than  Candlish  who,  after 
the  too  short  ministry  of  Mr.  Martin,  was  chosen 
for  his  successor  in  the  pulpit  of  St.  George's.  The 
parish  was  very  large,  but  under  Andrew  Thomson  it 
had  been  energetically  managed,  and  under  Candlish, 
helped  by  one  or  two  ministerial  assistants,  and  by  a 
rare  company  of  volunteers  of  the  angelic  order,  male 
and  female,  from  the  congregation  itself,  it  became — we 
need  not  scruple  to  say  so — a  model  for  Christendom ; 
exemplary  in  all  respects  in  which  a  parish  can  be 
exemplary,  in  education  of  the  young,  in  consideration  for 
the  poor,  in  the  preaching  of  salvation  through  Christ. 
And  one  of  its  specialties  was  that  the  high  intellectual 
character  of  its  preaching  drew  to  it  the  flower  of  the 
intellectuality  of  the  modern  Athens.  Of  barristers  and 
law  lords,  of  University  professors  and  promising  students, 
of  eminent  doctors  and  surgeons,  and  authors  and 
scientific  celebrities,  of  thinkers  who  were  Christian  and 
of  Christians  who  could  think,  no  pulpit  in  Edinburgh 
attracted  so  great  a  concurrence  as  that  of  Candlish. 
Had    it    been   Herod    whose    nod    commanded    Andrew 


150  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Thomson  to  death,  he  would  have  said  that  Andrew  had 
risen  from  the  dead.  That  reconciliation  between  intel- 
lect and  evangelism,  between  culture  of  the  modern 
Athens  and  theology  of  the  Wisharts  and  Knoxes,  the 
Gillespies  and  Hendersons  and  Eutherfords,  the  cove- 
nanted, sword -girt  saints  of  Airsmoss  and  Drumclog, 
which  had  been  effected  by  Andrew  Thomson,  was  repre- 
sented in  finer,  more  intellectual,  more  spiritual  mani- 
festation by  Candlish. 

And  now,  in  the  evolution  of  this  great  providential 
drama,  Chalmers  who  had  so  illustriously  co-operated 
with  Thomson,  and  Candlish  who  had  succeeded  Thomson 
as  the  first  of  Edinburgh  preachers,  stood  side  by  side, 
in  unity  of  purpose  but  individuality  of  character,  to  do 
battle  on  behalf  of  the  Church  and  people  of  Scotland. 
In  majesty  Chalmers  was  unapproached.  In  impetuosity, 
in  forward-looking  glance  and  moving  impulse,  in  eager 
acceptance  of  the  spirit  and  ideas  of  a  new  time,  Candlish 
was  potently  felt  and  conspicuously  seen.  He  had 
always  chafed  against  a  calculating,  guarded,  prudential 
virtue.  "  Men's  minds,"  he  had  written  to  a  confidential 
friend,  "  are  not  open  to  large  and  liberal  views, — a 
certain  low  and  feeble  and  miserably  short-sighted  policy 
rather  suits  them.  Everything  like  high  principle  and 
honest  zeal  seems  out  of  place.  All  is  cold  and  calculat- 
ing prudence."  He  had  now  found  a  field  in  which  the 
instincts  and  cravings  of  a  puissant  heroism  were  likely 
to  have  satisfaction. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 
t^e  ^tan  of  S^cuffg* 

rriHE  position  of  the  Church  at  that  moment,  when, 
-*-  putting  aside  the  surrender  motion  of  Dr.  Cook 
and  the  evasive  motion  of  Dr.  Muir,  she  adopted  the 
motion  made  by  Chahuers  and  spoken  to  by  Candhsh, 
looked  simple  and  imposing,  but  it  involved  complica- 
tions. It  was  simple  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  Pres- 
byterian Churchman.  It  became  complicated  when  the 
Presbyterian  Church  was  viewed  as  established  and 
endowed  by  the  State. 

Dual  government  is  always  difficult.  Is  it  denied 
that  the  Church  of  Scotland,  as  conceived  by  Chalmers 
and  those  for  whom  he  spoke,  was  indeed  a  dual  govern- 
ment ?  As  an  abstract  question  the  point  may  be 
open  to  debate,  but  practically  it  was  impossible  that 
the  association  of  the  two  powers,  spiritual  and  secular, 
in  her  constitution,  should  not  involve  some  of  the 
natural  consequences  of  dual  government.  Regard- 
ing the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  as  independent,  and 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  State  as  independent,  each  co- 
ordinate to  each,  we  must  still  admit  tlie  necessity  of  an 


152  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

understanding  between  the  two.  Loyal  in  his  heart  of 
hearts  both  to  Church  and  to  State, — believing  both  to 
be  divinely  ordained, — Chalmers  had  taken  it  for  granted, 
his  whole  life  long,  that  there  was  no  cause  for  appre- 
hension that  the  jurisdictions  would  clash.  Recurring 
to  the  old  Platonic  similitude,  we  may  say  that  Church 
and  State,  as  viewed  by  him,  were  immortal  steeds,  one 
white  as  snow,  one  raven -black,  driven  in  the  same 
chariot  by  one  invisible  Christ.  It  had  been  the  sup- 
porting faith,  the  exultant  assertion,  of  Chalmers,  in  his 
championship  of  Church  Establishments,  that  there  is  no 
insuperable,  no  depressingly  formidable  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  friendly,  efficient,  reciprocally  loyal  co-operation 
between  these  powers,  each  exercising  an  independent 
jurisdiction,  both  possessing  a  right  Divine.  He  had 
proceeded  on  the  conviction  that,  if  the  Church  held 
strictly  to  her  spiritual  province,  the  State  could  not 
and  would  not  prove  hostile  to  her.  He  would  not  now 
bate  one  jot  or  one  tittle  of  the  Church's  claim  to  that 
liberty,  that  autonomy,  that  expansive  power,  which  the 
State  had  not  given  and  which  the  State  could  not  take 
away.  But  with  religious  eartnestness  and  sincerity  he 
recognised  also  the  State's  right  to  decide  every  question 
arising  within  the  secular  province,  or  around  the  spiritual 
province  {circa  sacra) ;  and  he  respectfully  asked  the 
supreme  civil  authority,  the  Queen's  Government,  to 
remove  what  he  deemed  the  misunderstanding  that  had 
obscured  the  line  of  demarcation  between  the  provinces. 

It  is  a  sound  rule,  eminently  promotive  of  complete- 
ness in  the  statement  of  facts  and  of  equity  in  judging 
them,  and  pleasant  both  in  the  conduct  of  controversies 


THE  DEAN  OF  FACULTY.  153 

and  their  historical  recital,  to  take  it  for  granted  that 
people  are  honest  all  ronnd,  and  that  changes,  inconsist- 
encies, nay  even  contradictions,  do  not  necessarily  convict 
men  of  conscious  falsehood.  In  the  heat  of  debate,  in 
the  warmth  of  sympathetic  narrative,  sharp  words  will 
be  spoken,  that  seem  utterly  to  violate  this  rule,  but  an 
effort  ought  to  be  made  to  repress  such  aberrations.  In 
the  conflict  of  which  we  treat,  motives  were  frankly 
imputed,  and  it  is,  in  sooth,  difficult  for  one  to  whom  it 
seems  sun-clear  that  Chalmers,  Candlish,  and  Cunning- 
ham were  in  the  right,  to  resist  the  suspicion  that  some 
element  of  perversity,  some  ethically,  not  to  say  Chris- 
tianly  objectionable  motive,  influenced  one  at  least  of  the 
legal  opponents  of  the  Church. 

All  would  have  gone  differently — this  is  beyond  dis- 
pute— had  it  not  been  for  the  part  played,  against  the 
Eeforming  party,  by  John  Hope,  Dean  of  Faculty,  the 
same  man  whom  we  found  schooling  Chalmers  in  the 
principles  of  Presbyterianism,  and  appealing  to  him  to 
resent  and  resist  the  least  encroachment  upon  the 
liberties  of  the  Church.  Let  us  try  to  suppose  that  he 
believed  himself  to  have  been  visited  by  new  light,  and 
that  he  was  equally  sincere  in  rebuking  the  Whigs 
when  they  proposed  to  institute  a  religious  inspection 
of  parishes,  and  in  weaving  schemes  with  the  Tories 
for  laying  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  at 
the  feet  of  the  Court  of  Session.  Dr.  Buchanan,  who 
entered  into  the  fray  against  him,  cannot  be  expected  to 
detect  much  of  moral  spendour  in  his  motives,  but  no 
evidence  could  be  more  cogent  than  Dr.  Buchanan's  as 
to   the   immense   effect  of   his   hostility.       As   an    elder 


154  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

counselling  the  Moderate  leaders  in  the  General  Assembly, 
as  a  pamphleteer  riding  full  tilt  against  the  Evangelical 
controversialists,  and — deadliest  of  all — as  confidential 
friend  and  adviser,  earwigging  statesmen,  whom  he  could 
approach  in  their  hours  of  retirement  or  prepossess  by 
his  private  and  confidential  letters,  he  was  the  soul  of 
the  party  whose  object  was  to  shackle  the  aspiring 
Church,  and  to  force  her  to  take  orders,  in  her  most 
sacred  operations,  from  the  Court  of  Session. 

The  Dean,  consistent  or  inconsistent,  malignant  or  high- 
principled,  was,  without  question,  a  man  who  could  think 
for  himself.  He  had  from  the  first  been  an  unswerving 
opponent  of  the  Veto  Law.  But  though  he  thus  made 
it  plain  that  he  called  in  question  the  right  of  the 
Church,  even  when  acting  with  the  sanction  of  Her 
Majesty's  Law  Officers  for  Scotland,  and  at  the  instance 
of  a  distinguished  member  of  the  Court  of  Session,  Lord 
Moncreiff,  to  make  a  law  regulating  the  exercise  of 
patronage  without  consulting  Parliament,  he  did  not  at 
that  time  proceed  to  the  inference  that,  until  she  retraced 
this  step,  her  jurisdiction  was  suspended,  her  independ- 
ence forfeited.  It  was  after  the  passing  of  the  Veto 
Law  that  he  adjured  Chalmers  to  bristle  up  at  an  alleged 
violation  of  the  spiritual  independence  of  the  Church. 

Plainly,  also,  at  the  time  when  he  first  took  in  hand 
the  case  of  Mr.  Young  and  the  Earl  of  Kinnoull,  presentee 
and  patron  of  the  parish  of  Auchterarder,  he  had  not 
made  up  his  mind  to  touch  the  spiritual  jurisdiction. 
The  action  was  laid  by  him  in  a  shape  which  admitted 
of  its  consequences  being  confined  to  the  temporalities 
of  the   parish.      This  was  in    1835.      But   in    1837   he 


THE  DEAN  OF  FA  CUL  FY.  155 

changed  his  plan  of  campaign,  and  made  it  his  request, 
on  the  part  of  Mr.  Young  to  the  Court  of  Session,  that 
the  Church  should  be  required,  by  ordaining  him  to  the 
cure  of  souls,  to  open  his  way  to  the  temporal  goods  of 
the  parish. 

This  was  a  change  indeed.  The  Church  had  no  con- 
scientious difficulty  in  dealing  with  temporalities.  She 
did,  no  doubt,  say  that  she  had  a  duty  in  relation  to 
these.  She  did  not  deny  that  there  was  a  sense,  and  an 
important  sense,  m  which  it  was  her  part  to  defend  them 
against  aggression.  She  was  bound  to  tell  the  Court  of 
Session  that  they  had  been  set  apart  for  a  particular 
purpose, — the  maintenance  of  a  gospel  ministry  in  the 
parishes  of  Scotland.  Pittance  as  they  were,  compared 
with  the  glittering  heaps  that  had  sunk  into  the  capacious 
maw  of  the  Scottish  aristocracy,  they  were  something, — 
and  the  Church's  duty  was  to  shield  them  and  make  the 
best  use  of  them,  in  the  interest  of  the  parishioners. 
But  the  Church,  as  she  had  only  a  spiritual  jurisdiction, 
had  only  spiritual  arms,  and  could  be  under  no  con- 
scientious call  to  resist  the  State,  if  it,  by  physical  force, 
applied  the  property  of  the  people  in  a  way  she  dis- 
approved. All  the  Church  could  do  was  to  wash  her 
hands  of  the  temporalities,  by  bearing  the  most  effective 
testimony  in  her  power  as  to  how  they  ought  to  be 
bestowed. 

But  the  face  of  the  matter  was  changed  when 
the  Court  of  Session,  in  response  to  the  application  of 
]\Ir.  Young  and  the  pleading  of  the  Dean,  required  the 
Church  to  proceed  with  Mr.  Young's  ordination.  The 
face  of  the  matter  was  changed  when  the  Presbytery  of 


156  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Lethendy,  having  obeyed  the  Church  as  to  ordmation 
rather  than  the  Court  of  Session,  was  summoned  by  the 
Court  to  its  bar,  and  pul^Ucly  reprimanded.  It  was  a 
very  different  matter  when  the  Presbytery  of  Strath- 
bogie,  choosing  to  obey  the  Court  of  Session  instead  of 
the  Church,  ordained  the  patron's  presentee  in  despite  of 
the  all  but  unanimous  remonstrance  of  the  parishioners 
of  Marnoch.  No  one  had  ever  disputed  that,  if  there 
exists  such  a  thing  as  spiritual  jurisdiction,  ordination 
falls  within  its  province.  The  Dean,  who  had  shouted 
to  Chalmers  to  guard  the  independence  of  the  Church, 
now  called  upon  the  Court  of  Session  to  command  her  to 
perform,  or  not  to  perform,  the  right  of  ordination. 

Our  readers  have  probably  ceased  to  have  much  diffi- 
culty in  understanding  how  a  position  so  simple  as  that 
taken  up  by  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  the  memorable 
Assembly  of  1839  should  involve  complications.  The 
dual  government  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  if  pro- 
blematical in  theory,  became  a  grimly-featured  fact  under 
the  conjuring  of  the  Dean.  The  Church  had  been  as 
careful  as  was  consistent  with  fortitude.  The  Assembly 
had  resolved,  in  so  far  as  was  practicable,  to  stay  pro- 
ceedings in  disputed  settlements  until  progress  once 
more  became  safe  and  easy.  Chalmers,  who  had  fondly 
dreamed  of  the  seventh  decade  of  his  life  as  to  be  spent 
in  Sabbatic  rest,  happy  in  the  contemplation  of  past 
labours  and  the  prospect  of  a  heavenly  reward,  could 
not  in  his  heart  of  hearts  believe  that,  now  his  sixtieth 
year  was  past,  the  crowning  glory  of  his  endeavours,  the 
paragon  of  religious  Estaltlishments,  the  resurgent  and 
grandly  efficient  Church  of  Scotland  was  to  be  humiliated, 


THE  DEAN  OF  FA  CUL  TY.  157 

disowned,  dismantled  by  lawyers  and  statesmen  for  the 
crime  of  wakening  np  to  her  duty.  But  he  was  an 
honest  man,  and  death  itself  would  have  been  better  for 
him  than  to  feel  that  his  championship  of  Churcli  Estab- 
lishments had  been  based  on  false  pretences.  Was  the 
Headship  of  Christ  after  all  a  mere  flag,  a  rhetorical 
flourish,  a  thing  for  histrionic  strutting  and  bombastic 
effusion,  or  was  it  a  sacred  reality  ?  Chalmers  had 
again  and  again,  with  all  the  vividness  and  vehemence  of 
which  he  was  capable,  affirmed  that  a  negative  answer  to 
this  last  question  would,  if  unmistakably  given,  amount 
to  a  dissolution  of  the  league  between  Church  and  State 
in  Scotland. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 
€H  C^vitc^  ox  i^e  Court  of  ^esaion^ 

IF  the  recider  wishes  to  keep  the  essentials  of  this 
quarrel  distinctly  before  his  mind's  eye,  he  is 
counselled  to  retain  a  vivid  recollection  of  the  Veto  Act 
and  the  Chapel  Act.  All  the  assumption  of  the  Church 
lay  there.  She  considered  it  within  her  province  to 
decree  that  the  rights  of  patrons  should  be  so  exercised 
as  not  to  force  ministers  on  congregations,  and  that  her 
clergy  should  form  one  equal  brotherhood,  not  a  superior 
and  inferior  caste.  If  any  leading  statesman  had  been 
able  to  discern  that  no  possible  calamity  could  ensue 
although  Chalmers  and  his  party  were  treated  in  a  spirit 
of  generous  trust,  and  such  adjustments  made  in  the 
letter  of  the  law  as  were  requisite  to  prevent  friction 
between  the  Church  and  the  Court  of  Session,  all  might 
have  been  well. 

But  promptitude  would  have  been  indispensable ;  for, 
although  the  Church  might  be  most  anxious  to  make  no 
encroachment  whatever  on  the  province  of  the  State,  she 
could  not  allow  her  own  ministers  to  cast  to  the  winds 
her  ordinances  of  government,  and  laugh  her  discipline  to 

15S 


THE  CHURCH  OR  THE  COURT  OF  SESSION.       159 

scorn.  The  Church  could  not  allow  ministers  to  violate 
their  ordination  vows,  and  they  had  certainly  promised, 
at  ordination,  to  obey  her  in  spiritual  things.  If  her 
ministers,  when  commanded  by  the  Church  not  to  ordain 
a  particular  man,  and  ordered  by  the  Court  of  Session 
to  ordain  him,  did  perform  the  rite  by  order  of  the 
Court,  then,  if  the  Church  inflicted  no  censure  on  them, 
the  very  "  weans  "  and  herd  laddies  on  the  Scottish  braes 
would  have  treated  her  jurisdiction  with  the  laughing 
unconcern  with  which,  as  Death  complained  to  Burns, 
Dr.  Hornbook  had  taught  them  to  regard  his  awful  dart. 
And  just  this  question  of  obeying  the  Church,  or  obeying 
the  Court  of  Session,  was  that  with  which  the  terrible 
Dean  confronted  the  ministers  of  Scotland.  Hence  a 
complication,  a  tragic  and  lamentable  complication. 

A  certain  number  of  the  clergy,  finding  that  they 
could  not  possibly  obey  both  the  Church  and  the  Court 
of  Session, — that  there  was  no  third  course  between 
exposing  themselves  to  the  risk  of  spiritual  punishment 
from  the  Church,  involving  no  necessary  risk  to  glebe  or 
stipend,  and  exposing  themselves  to  temporal  punish- 
ment, in  shape  of  fine  or  miprisonment,  from  the  Court 
of  Session, — elected  to  disobey  the  Church  and  to  obey 
the  Civil  Magistrate.  They  were  ecclesiastical  rebels, 
and  sober-minded  persons  do  not  sympathise  with  rebel- 
lion for  the  sole  cause  that  it  is  ecclesiastical.  But  these 
rebels  were  ministers  of  that  composite  thing,  a  State 
Church.  Hence  they  had,  it  must  be  admitted,  something 
plausible — not  more — to  say  for  themselves,  something 
which  heroic  men,  or  clear-headed  men,  might  not  have 
said,    but  which  average  men  would  be  likely  in  most 


160  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

places    and    times  to   say.      They    had    been    taught    to 

reverence  Establishments.      They  had   been  taught  that 

the   elementary   logic  of   Presbyterianism,  as  contrasted 

with    Popery  on    this   hand    and    Erastianism    on    that, 

pronounced  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State  to  be  co-ordinate 

with  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church.      Was  it  a  sin  to 

obey  one  rather  than  the  other  of  two  co-ordinate  powers, 

both  sacred  ?     They  had  seen  Chalmers,  and  one  who,  in 

the  fierceness  of  his  opposition  to  patronage  far  outdid 

Chalmers,  namely,  Cunningham,  smiting  the  Voluntaries 

hip  and  thigh,  and  seeming,  at  moments,  to  fall  into  the 

habit,  all  but  universal  south  of  Tweed,  of  referring  to 

free  Churches  as  sects,  and  to  Established  Churches  as 

if  they   were    alone   entitled    to    the   name    of   Church. 

Cunningham,  no  doubt,  had  thundered  in  the  Assembly 

against  the  notion  that  the  Church  could  do  no  particular 

act  in  her  own  spiritual  sphere  without    going   cap  in 

hand    to    the    State    to    ask    permission  ;     but    he    had 

admitted  there  and  then  that  she  could  not  do  what  the 

State   expressly  proliibited.      A   country  minister  might 

have  some  shadow  of  excuse  for  mistaking  the  Court  of 

Session,  when  it  talked  very  big,  for  the  State.     The  Dean 

had  pointedly  affirmed  at  the  time  of  the  passing  of  the 

Veto  Act,  and  the  Court  of  Session  now  backed  him  up 

in  his  assertion,  that  the  State  had  prohibited  the  Church 

from  restoring  to  the  parishioners  rights  which  had  been 

transferred  to   the  patron.       The  statute  on  which  the 

Court  of  Session  relied  might  be  an  abominable  statute. 

The  Court  only  asked  whether  it  was  law.      Tt  might  be 

a  violation  of  the  Treaty  of  Union  l)etween  England  and 

Scotland.     The  Court  of  Session  did  not  mind  that.      It 


THE  CHURCH  OR  THE  COURT  OF  SESSION.       IGl 

might  be  luichristian,  inliuman,  in  its  dealing  with 
parishioners, — no  matter ;  tlie  only  question  the  Court  of 
Session  could  entertain  was  whether  it  was  law.  If  it  was, 
the  Court  would  interpret  it,  issue  decrees  in  accordance 
with  it,  severely  punish  for  disobeying  it,  and  place  all 
the  power  of  the  State  at  command  of  the  proper  officers 
to  give  it  effect. 

We  may  under  these  circumstances  despise  and  con- 
demn the  mhiisters  who,  defying  the  Church  and  tramp- 
ling on  the  people,  consented  to  do  the  bidding  of  the 
Court  of  Session,  but  we  cannot  be  blind  to  the  mysti- 
fications of  their  position.  They  could  not  be  electrified, 
on  a  sudden,  into  the  spuitual  heroism  which  made  a 
Chalmers,  a  Candlish,  a  M'Cheyne  ready  to  sacrifice  all 
things  rather  than  ordain  ministers  over  parishioners  who 
solemnly  declared  that  they  could  derive  no  edification 
from  them.  They  had  vowed  to  obey  the  Church,  and 
they  knew  that  the  Bible  was  the  Church's  law,  and, 
under  it,  the  Confession  of  Faith.  But  they  might 
vaguely  imagine,  or  may  at  least  l^e  charitably  supposed 
to  have  imagined,  that  all  tliese  were  included  for  them, 
as  State-Churchmen,  in  the  law  of  the  land.  Let  us  not 
be  surprised  if  thousands,  and  among  them  influential 
statesmen,  thought  that  the  discipline  under  which  the 
Church  placed  these  rebels  was  severe. 


CHAPTER  XX. 
B^an)  an^  ^ospef—Z^e  ^ci^en^i^  Case. 

rilHE  Dean  was  a  man  of  resolute  purpose,  not  to  be 
-*-  frightened  by  complications,  not  to  be  turned  by 
any  difficulty  from  the  even  tenor  of  his  way.  He  had 
made  up  his  mind  that  the  Court  of  Session  should  in 
all  causes  have  the  last  word  in  Scotland.  He  played 
the  part,  mutatis  mutandis,  of  Henry  VIIL,  and  made 
every  man  tremble  who  dared  to  obey  the  Church  and  to 
disobey  the  Civil  Power.  We  shall  take  two  illustrative 
samples  of  his  administration. 

The  Presbytery  of  Dunkeld  had  been  instructed  by 
the  Commission  of  Assembly  in  1838  to  induct  Mr. 
Kessen  into  the  pastoral  charge  of  the  parish  of 
Lethendy,  with  special  injunction  to  refrain  from  any 
interference  with  the  temporalities  of  the  parish.  The 
motion  to  this  effect  had  been  made  in  the  Commission 
of  Assembly  by  Mr.  Dunlop,  and  it  was  carried  by  an 
almost  unanimous  vote,  ^- fifty -two  against  six,  —  the 
Evangelicals  being  joined  on  the  occasion  by  leading 
IModerates.  Dr.  Brunton,  a  prominent  Moderate,  had 
described  the  act  of  the  Presbytery  "  as  purely  spiritual," 


LA  IV  AND  GOSPEL —  PHE  LE  THEND  V  CASE.       163 

adding  that  "  he  knew  his  own  province,  and  on  that 
province  he  would  stand  or  fall."  The  Presbytery  met, 
with  a  view  to  obeying  the  Church. 

The  Dean,  armed  with  an  interdict  of  the  Court  of 
Session,  forbade  the  Presbytery  to  proceed  with  the 
settlement.  The  l\ev.  Michael  Stirling,  of  Cargill,  the 
senior  member,  pointed  out  to  his  brethren  the  alternat- 
ives between  which  they  had  to  choose.  If  they  obeyed 
the  Court  of  Session,  they  would  be  secured  in  their 
manses  and  stipends ;  if  they  obeyed  the  Church,  they 
would  be  guilty  of  contempt  of  the  Civil  Court,  a  grave 
offence,  punishable  with  fine  and  imprisonment.  To  do 
the  bidding  of  the  Lords  of  Session  would  he,  in  effect, 
to  force  into  the  parish  of  Lethendy  a  man  whom  the 
people  refused  to  receive  as  their  pastor,  and  to  keep 
out  a  man  whom  the  people  accepted  and  the  Church 
approved.  Delay  was  not  to  be  thought  of,  for  the 
parish  had  for  nearly  two  years  been  deprived  of 
pastoral  superintendence.  Mr.  Stirling  was  a  country 
minister,  of  unobtrusive  character,  who  had  taken  little 
part  in  public  discussions,  but  he  had  not  a  shadow  of 
doubt  that,  in  proceeding  with  his  fellow-Presbyters  to 
ordain  Mr.  Kessen,  he  and  they  were  true  to  the  funda- 
mental prhiciples  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  The 
ordination,  therefore,  took  place,  in  defiance  of  the  Civil 
Magistrate. 

The  Presbyters  were  cited  to  the  bar  of  the  Court  of 
Session  to  answer  for  their  conduct.  The  judges,  twelve 
in  number,  wearing  their  robes  of  office,  occupied  the 
bench.  At  the  bar  stood  the  Presbytery,  eight  parisli 
ministers,  to  answer  for  contempt.     As  they  stood,  one 


164  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

or  two  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh  entered  the  court 
and  placed  themselves  at  their  side.  At  last  the  uni- 
versally honoured  Dr.  Gordon  entered  and  quietly  took 
his  station  with  them  at  the  bar.  This  brought  a  scowl 
across  the  brows  of  their  Lordships.  "  No  sooner  was 
the  noble  and  venerable  head  seen  emerging  from  the 
crowd  at  the  end  of  the  bar,  than  a  proposal  burst  from 
the  Bench  to  turn  out  those  clergymen  from  the  bar ; 
but  an  indignant  and  solemn  I'emonstrance  from  Lord 
Moncreiff"  checked  this  attempt." 

The  ministers  were  asked  what  they  had  to  say  for 
themselves.  Mr.  Stirling  made  a  brief  and  dignified 
statement,  professing  for  himself  and  his  brethren  the 
intention  to  treat  the  judges  with  all  the  reverence  that 
was  their  due,  but  making  no  apology  for  what  had  been 
done.  "  In  ordaining  to  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry, 
and  in  admitting  to  the  pastoral  charge,  to  which  in  the 
proceedings  complained  of  we  strictly  limited  ourselves, 
we  acted  in  obedience  to  the  superior  Church  judica- 
tories,— to  which,  in  matters  spiritual,  we  are  subordin- 
ate,— and  to  which,  at  ordination,  we  vowed  obedience." 

They  were  dismissed  for  the  time,  and  the  Court  took 
four  days  to  consider  how  they  should  be  punished.  "It 
is  conmionly  understood,"  says  Dr.  Buchanan,  "  that  five 
of  the  judges  voted  in  favour  of  a  sentence  of  imprison- 
ment, and  six  for  the  more  lenient  measure  of  a  rebuke ; 
and  that  the  Lord  President  did  not  vote  at  all."  On 
the  day  fixed  they  were  publicly  reprimanded,  and 
warned  that,  in  case  of  a  similar  offence,  they  should 
be  imprisoned. 

It   will    be    difficult  for   any    man    born   and   bred    in 


LA  IV  AND  GOSPEL THE  LETHEND  Y  CASE.       165 

England  to  enter  sympathetically  into  the  feelings  of 
the  Scottish  people  in  contemplating  this  exhibition.  If 
it  requires  a  surgical  operation  to  get  a  joke  into  the 
heads  of  the  countrymen  of  Scott,  Burns,  Professor 
Wilson,  and  Carlyle,  it  requires  an  operation  of  tenfold 
difficulty  to  cut  a  way  into  the  skull  of  an  ordinary 
Enghshman  for  the  conception  of  a  clergyman  of  an 
Established  Church  who  is  not  a  priest,  and  who  is  a 
cordial  friend  of  the  people.  But  every  intelligent  man 
and  woman  in  Scotland  was  capable  of  seeing  in  those 
clergymen,  who  were  called  from  their  parishes  and 
reprimanded  by  the  Court  of  Session,  sufferers  in  the 
cause  of  the  people,  representatives  of  that  ancient  league 
in  which  the  Church  and  people  of  Scotland  had  stood 
side  by  side  in  def-enee  of  rehgion  and  of  liberty.  That 
those  clergymen,  in  obeying  conscience  and  Christ,  had 
disobeyed  the  law  as  interpreted  by  the  Court  of  Session, 
admits  of  no  dispute.  But  if  modern  Englishmen  could 
find  leisure  to  cast  back  a  glance  upon  their  own  history 
three  hundred  years  ago,  they  would  see  that  law  has 
been  gloriously  defied  in  England  in  the  name  of  justice, 
freedom,  and  God. 

It  is,  as  we  remarked  before,  only  by  having  recourse 
to  analogy  that  one  has  a  chance  of  getting  an  honest, 
average  John  Bull,  who,  idolising  law,  hates  injustice, 
to  see  how,  by  the  action  of  the  Court  of  Session, 
wrong  was  done  in  the  Lethendy  case.  Suppose  the 
Court  of  Queen's  Bench  were  to  forbid  the  College  of 
Physicians  to  appomt  to  a  district  a  medical  practitioner 
whom  they  believed  to  be  capable,  from  his  being  accept- 
able to  the   inhabitants,  of  doing  them  a  maximum  of 


166  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

good,  and  to  command  them  to  appoint  instead  a  practi- 
tioner who,  from  the  aversion  to  him  of  the  inhabitants, 
could  do  them  only  a  minimum  of  good,  and  might  do 
them  positive  harm ;  and  suppose  the  College  of  Physi- 
cians, proving  refractory,  were  fined,  reprimanded,  and 
threatened  with  imprisonment  for  their  conduct, — then 
the  situation  would  closely  correspond  to  that  presented 
in  Scotland  by  the  Lethendy  case.  In  England,  under 
these  circumstances,  there  would  be  an  outburst  of  public 
surprise,  a  storm  in  the  newspapers ;  a  conspicuous  dis- 
regard, it  might  be,  of  theories  upon  the  subject,  but 
a  unanimous  cry  of  amazement  and  protest  at  the 
pedantic  spectacle  of  lawyers  ordering  and  instructing 
physicians  to  do  their  professional  duty.  The  peculiar 
element  that  intensified  to  painfulness  the  interest  with 
which  onlookers  in  Scotland  contemplated  the  treatment 
of  Mr.  Stirling  and  his  brethren,  lay  in  the  fact  that 
they  were  wounded,  not  merely  in  their  professional 
point  of  honour,  but  in  conscience,  for  they  had  vowed 
to  obey,  in  all  spiritual  concerns,  not  the  Court  of 
Session,  but  the  Church. 

It  was  one  of  the  minor  complications  of  this  Lethendy 
case,  that  the  Crown,  as  represented  by  the  Government 
of  the  day,  actually  stood  on  the  same  side  with  the 
Church  and  the  people  against  the  Court  of  Session 
armed  with  the  omnipotent  letter  of  a  statute.  Mr.  Clark, 
the  presentee  whom  the  people  had  rejected,  and  whom 
therefore  the  Church  put  aside,  owed  his  presentation 
to  the  Crown.  But  the  Government  had  made  it  a 
point,  in  the  exercise  of  the  Crown  patronage,  to  defer 
to   the   Church,  and    to    proceed    upon    the    assumption 


LA  W  AND  GOSPEL THE  LETHEND  V  CASE.       167 

that  the  Veto  Act  was  legal.  Accordingly,  Mr.  Clark, 
the  presentee  in  question,  found  himself  dropped  by  the 
Government.  Crown,  Church,  and  people  united  in 
support  of  Mr.  Kessen.  This  was  the  position  of  affairs, 
until  the  Dean  of  Faculty  may  be  presumed  to  have 
favoured  Mr.  Clark  with  a  hint  that  the  legality  of 
the  Veto  Act  had  been  denied,  and  that  therefore  all 
the  proceedings  by  which  his  presentation  had  been 
cancelled  were  null  and  void.  At  all  events,  it  was 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Dean  that  Mr.  Clark  brought 
his  action,  and  to  the  Dean  that  he  owed  his  victory. 
By  the  incantations  of  this  wizard  such  curious  confu- 
sion was  wrought,  that  the  Crown  appeared  in  the  case 
on  both  sides,  as  patron  of  Mr.  Clark  by  grace  of  the 
Dean,  as  patron  of  Mr.  Kessen  by  grace  of  the  Church 
and  the  people.  Unquestionably  supreme  in  the  civil 
province,  the  Crown  was  in  effect  reprimanded  by  its 
own  Court  of  Session  for  being  an  accomplice  with  the 
Established  Church  in  the  ordination  of  a  pastor  in  the 
parish  of  Lethendy. 

One  word  more,  and  we  need  linger  no  longer  on  the 
illustrative  aspects  of  the  Lethendy  case.  Mr.  Stirling 
and  his  brethren  were  cast  in  expenses  to  the  amount 
of  £346, — a  virtual  fine.  But  this  was  not  enough  for 
Mr.  Clark  and  his  counsel.  The  former  brought  a  new 
action,  on  the  ground  of  the  pecuniary  loss  occasioned 
to  him  by  the  obstruction  placed  in  the  way  to  his 
entering  upon  the  living,  and  "  obtained  a  decree  for 
damages  to  the  extent  of  several  thousand  pounds."  And 
when  at  last  obstruction  vanished  from  the  path  of  the 
man  whom  the  people  had  rejected  and  the  Dean  had 


1G8  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

backed  up, — when  the  obsequious  EstabKshmeut  had 
hurried  the  Veto  Act  into  obhvion — when  the  triumphant 
Dean  had  thrust  Chahners,  Cunningham,  and  CandHsh  into 
the  wilderness,  and  he  and  Mr.  Clark  could  congratulate 
each  other  on  the  Disruption, — what  then  was  the  result 
as  affecting  the  personal  merits  and  character  of  the 
Court  of  Session's  minister  ?  Alas  !  that  his  Presbytery 
were  compelled  to  libel  liini  for  drunkenness,  and,  in 
legal  phrase,  strike  his  name  from  the  roll !  The  instinct 
of  the  people  had  been  right.  He  was  not  the  man  to 
be  the  shepherd  and  bishop  of  their  souls.  And  it  was 
for  barring  hLs  intrusion  upon  them  that  a  company  of 
quiet  country  pastors,  not  lich  in  worldly  goods,  but 
exemplary  in  simple  graces  and  virtues,  and  having  it 
as  their  life-work  to  make  the  light  of  Christ  shine  in 
their  parishes,  "  were  threatened  with  the  terrors  of  im- 
prisonment, and  harassed  with  fines  heavy  enough,  had 
not  the  burden  been  borne  l^y  the  Chui-ch  at  large,  to 
have  consigned  some  at  least  of  its  members,  and  their 
families  along  with  them,  to  beggary  and  ruin." 

Such  were  the  results  of  the  attempt  of  the  Dean  to 
absorb  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  into  that  of  the 
Court  of  Session,  in  an  instance  in  which  the  clergy 
elected  to  obey  the  Church  rather  than  the  Court.  But, 
as  we  have  seen,  it  was  a  possible,  nay  a  probable  event 
that  some  of  the  clergy,  having  been  taught  to  plume  them- 
selves on  their  State  connection,  having  thought  it  a  kind 
of  duty  to  fling  scorn  into  the  eyes  of  unattached  Presby- 
terians, and  being  possessed  with  a  vague  sense  of  the 
awfulness  of  resisting  the  law  of  the  land,  should  prefer 
to  obey  the  Court  of  Session  rather  than  the  Church. 


CHAPTEE  XXL 
&anj  an^  (Boepef— ^^e  (Reef  of  Q$ogte» 

rpHE  probability  became  a  fact  when  Mr.  Edwards,  pre- 
-*-  sented  in  1837  by  the  patron  to  the  pastoral  charge 
of  Marnoch,  was  vetoed  by  an  overwhelming  majority  of 
the  congregation.  The  Church  ordered  the  local  Presby- 
tery, to  wit,  Strathbogie,  to  reject  him.  The  majority 
of  the  Presbyters  are  understood  to  have  done  so  with 
the  utmost  reluctance,  but  they  obeyed.  Things  then 
took  their  usual  course.  Mr.  Edwards  applied  to  the 
Court  of  Session,  and  the  Court  of  Session  granted  him 
a  virtual  command  to  the  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie  to 
ordain  him  pastor  of  Marnoch.  The  Court  of  Session 
said,  Ordain.  The  Church  by  its  Commission  of 
Assembly  said,  Eeject.      Which  was  to  be  obeyed  ? 

The  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie  consisted  of  twelve 
ministers.  Seven  were  Moderates,  five  were  Evan- 
gelicals. But  one  of  these  last,  an  able  man,  zealous  on 
the  side  of  Church  and  people,  happened  to  be  Moderator 
of  the  Presbytery.  The  seven  Moderates  had  liitherto 
obeyed  the  Church  in  so  far  as  they  could  do  so  witliout 
offending  the  Civil  Court,  and  when  they  found  that  Mr. 

lO'J 


170       THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Edwards  returned  upon  them  armed  with  an  injunction 
from  the  Court  of  Session,  they  exerted  themselves  to 
the  utmost  to  yield  obedience  to  the  Court  without 
technically  disobeying  the  Church.  No  more  than  a  few 
weeks  had  elapsed  since  the  Commission  had  forbidden 
them  to  proceed  with  the  ordination  of  Mr.  Edwards. 
It  was  only  at  their  regular  meeting  of  Presbytery,  some 
considerable  time  ahead,  that  they  w^ould  be  officially 
informed  of  this  prohibition.  They  did  their  best,  there- 
fore, to  get  up  in  hot  haste  a  meeting  of  Presbytery, 
with  a  view  to  ordaining  Mr.  Edwards  out  of  hand,  and 
thus  obeying  the  Court  of  Session  in  substance  without 
disobeying  the  Church  in  form. 

One  cannot  help  feeling  something  like  a  touch  of 
pity  for  these  sorely  bested  Presbyters  in  their  artless 
doubling  between  Church  and  State.  How  happy  could 
they  have  been  with  either !  They  were  not  a  bad 
kind  of  men,  those  Strathbogie  Moderates,  but  they 
were  not  of  heroic  temper,  nor  in  the  least  ambitious  to 
play  a  morally  heroic  part.  The  Aberdeenshire  doctors 
had  not  shone  in  the  Covenanting  annals  of  Scotland. 
From  the  time  when  Huntly  and  the  other  Popish  lords 
had  troubled  King  James,  and  cast  glances  of  dubious 
sympathy  towards  Spain,  there  had  been  a  decided 
absence  of  Presbyterian  enthusiasm  in  those  districts 
where  Bogie  runs  seaward,  through  its  strath  on  the 
bordering  shires  of  Banff  and  Aberdeen.  Associations 
with  the  reel  of  Bogie,  and  all  that  it  typifies  of  dancing, 
mirth,  and  wild  lyric  sportfulness  in  the  character  of 
Scots,  were  more  characteristic  of  Strathbogie  than  the 
austere  piety  of  the  Covenanters. 


LAW  AND  GOSPEL THE  PEEL  OF  BOGIE.       171 

The  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie  were  now  perfectly 
determined  to  obey  the  Court  of  Session,  but  they  did  their 
best  to  avoid  formal  disobedience  of  their  ecclesiastical 
superiors,  and  attempted  a  smart  trot  to  the  avenue  for 
that  purpose.  Their  Evangelical  Moderator,  however, 
showed  himself  their  match  in  foresight  and  promptitude, 
and  completely  baffled  their  project  of  ordaining  Mr. 
Edwards  at  an  extraordinary  meeting  of  Presbytery. 
The  result  was,  that  at  the  meeting  of  the  Commission 
of  Assembly  in  June  1839,  the  Commission  had  no 
graver  business  before  it  than  to  decide  upon  the 
measures  to  be  taken  in  the  case  of  a  Presbytery  of  the 
Church  which  had  given  unmistakable  evidence  of  its 
determination  to  ordain  a  minister  in  direct  defiance  of 
the  Church,  and  in  express  obedience  to  the  Court  of 
Session. 

The  Church  chose  its  best  men  to  be  its  mouthpieces 
on  this  occasion.  Candlish  made  the  motion  in  which 
the  seven  were  rebuked,  and  placed,  in  so  far  as  at  the 
present  stage  of  the  business  seemed  practicable,  in  a 
position  in  which  further  offence  might  be  avoided.  Had 
the  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie  manifested  contrition,  or 
displayed  any  disposition  to  return  to  their  allegiance, 
the  past  would  have  been  too  gladly  forgiven ;  but,  since 
they  notoriously  persisted  in  their  determination  to  pro- 
ceed to  the  ordination  of  Mr.  Edwards,  it  seemed  to  be 
kindness,  on  the  part  of  the  Church,  to  prevent  them,  by 
suspending  their  powers  as  ministers,  from  committing 
an  offence  so  grave  as  to  entail  a  sentence  of  deposition. 

Candlish  having  stated  wherein  the  Presbytery  had 
offended,  dwelt   earnestly  on   the  desire   of   the   Church 


172  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

to  proceed  with  gentleness  and  forbearance.  If  the 
brethren,  he  said,  would  give  the  Commission  then  and 
there  a  pledge  of  loyalty,  "  an  assurance  that  till  the 
meeting  of  the  Assembly  they  will  take  no  further  steps 
ill  the  matter,"  he  would  joyfully  refer  the  whole  question 
to  the  next  Assembly.  It  was  only  when  the  Church 
had  been  "  bearded  and  defied  "  by  her  own  licentiates, 
it  was  only  when  her  ordained  ministers  had  committed 
"  intolerable  offence  against  her  avithority,"  that  she  had 
been  "  driven  to  the  wall "  and  forced  to  have  recourse 
to  penal  measures.  In  vain  she  had  studiously  refrained 
from  avoidable  collision  with  the  Court  of  Session  ;  in 
vain  she  had  endeavoured,  pending  any  appeal  to  the 
Legislature,  to  place  the  relation  between  herself  and 
her  adversaries  on  the  footing  of  an  armistice.  The 
refractory  Presbytery  now  declined  to  give  any  sign  of 
relenting. 

He  moved,  therefore,  that  the  majority  should  be 
suspended  from  the  office  of  the  ministry.  But  the 
sharpness  of  the  sentence  was  qualified  in  two  ways.  In 
the  first  place,  it  was  put  within  the  option  of  the 
suspended  ministers  to  be  replaced  in  their  office  on 
merely  subscribing  an  assurance  of  willingness  to  obey 
the  Church.  In  the  second  place,  a  committee  was 
named  to  deal  with  them  in  the  way  of  friendly  con- 
ference, with  a  view  to  their  restoration  to  the  office  of 
Presbyters.  The  object  was  to  deter  them  from  consum- 
mating their  rebellion  by  proceeding  to  the  ordination 
of  Mr.  Edwards, — "  to  prevent  tliem  from  doing  what,  if 
left  alone,  they  might  feel  themselves  bound  to  do ;  but 
what  surely,  if  they  are  prevented  by  the  interposition  of 


LAW  AND  GOSPEL THE  REEL  OE  BOGIE.       173 

(Hir  authority,  they  cannot  reasonably  take  blame  to 
themselves  for  leaving  undone." 

Dr.  Chalmers,  supporting  Candlish,  laid  stress  upon 
the  imperious  necessity  under  which  the  Church  lay,  if 
anarchy  was  not  to  prevail,  to  require  obedience  from 
her  clergy.  "  The  Presbytery  had  committed,"  he  said, 
"  an  open  breach  on  that  authority,  under  which  all 
statutory  enactments,  and  all  judicial  sentences,  were 
carried  into  execution.  It  was  disobedience,  not  against 
a  rule,  but  against  the  power  which  originated  and  en- 
forced all  rules  and  ordinances.  If  it  were  allowed, 
there  would  be  an  end  to  all  law  and  all  government." 
He  had  at  first  felt  that  there  was  no  course  but  to  pro- 
ceed at  once  to  the  supreme  penalty  of  deposition ;  but 
he  rejoiced  that  a  milder  expedient  had  been  devised. 
He  avowed  his  suspicion  that  the  ministers  had  been  the 
prey  of  malevolent  influences  beyond  control  by  the 
Church.  He  appealed  to  his  brethren,  "  in  the  name 
of  all  that  is  dear  in  principle,  and  all  that  is  dear  in 
patriotism,"  to  defend  their  beloved  Church  from  anarchy 
within  and  tyranny  without.  "Heaven  forbid,"  he  cried, 
"  that  in  the  wild  delirium  of  conflict  we  should  forget 
prmciples  which  are  equally  dear  to  both  parties,  or 
suffer  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  fall  by  the  hands  of  her 
own  children  ! " 

The  decision  arrived  at  ])y  the  Commission  was  practi- 
cally unanimous.  Not  only  was  Candlish's  motion  carried 
by  121  votes  against  14,  but  Dr.  Bryce,  (me  of  the 
most  prominent  representatives  of  Moderatism,  "  withdrew 
from  his  motion  the  clause  which  contained  an  approval 
of   the   Presbvterv's    conduct."       It   was    not   with   the 


174  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

principles  of  the  Chalmers  party  that  the  Moderates  had 
any  quarrel,  it  was  with  the  life-or-death  earnestness  with 
which  the  Evangelicals  maintained  them.  The  freedom 
of  the  Church,  the  Headship  of  Christ,  the  rights  of  the 
people,  —  these  were  fine  phrases ;  but  reprimands  by 
the  Court  of  Session,  menaces  of  imprisonment,  heavy 
costs,  prospective  possibilities  in  the  shape  of  loss  of 
manse  and  stipend,  were  deplorable  drawbacks  to  the 
sentunental  romance  of  Churchmanship. 

The  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie,  having  made  up  its 
mind,  showed  no  disposition  to  flinch.  The  seven  refused 
even  to  meet  a  deputation  of  the  Conciliatory  Committee 
appointed  by  the  Church.  As  the  Commission  of 
Assembly  had  taken  steps  for  the  maintenance  of  pubHc 
worship  and  pastoral  ministration  in  the  parishes  durmg 
their  suspension,  they  had  recourse  to  the  Court  of  Session 
for  additional  protection.  They  asked,  in  effect,  that  the 
Court  should  empower  them  to  treat  the  decree  of 
suspension  as  a  nullity,  and  to  continue  in  the  exercise 
of  then-  presbyterial  and  pastoral  functions  as  before,  and 
should  forbid  ministers,  who  might  be  enjoined  by  the 
Church  to  perform  their  olSce  for  them  during  suspen- 
sion, to  execute  the  Church's  commands.  The  Court  of 
Session  met  them,  to  begin  with,  half-way,  giving  them 
a  decree  excluding  all  ministers  unsanctioned  by  them 
from  the  parochial  churches,  churchyards,  and  school- 
houses.  The  Church  had,  of  course,  no  conscientious 
objection  to  submit  to  this  exclusion.  Church  buildings 
are  property,  and  so  are  school -houses,  and  even  the 
grass  over  the  bones  of  the  dead  may  be  relinquished  to 
the  secular  jurisdiction. 


LAW  AND  GOSPEL THE  REEL  OF  BOGIE.       175 

The  Church  might  most  smcerely  thank  the  Court 
of  Session  for  launching  at  her  this  'decree.  The  world- 
ling and  the  atheist  seldom  scruple  to  violate  all  courtesy 
in  applying  the  terms  "false"  and  "hypocritical"  to 
religious  men  and  to  ecclesiastical  bodies,  and  mean 
persons  were  sure  to  suspect  that  the  Church,  with 
all  her  spiritual  professions,  was  really  aiming  at 
the  temporalities.  The  Court  of  Session  now  enabled 
her  to  shut  the  mouth  of  every  scoffer  by  leaving  the 
churches  of  the  rebel  seven  unentered,  and  sending  men 
to  preach  on  hillsides  and  highways,  and  in  barns  and 
upper  rooms.  It  was  over  the  souls  of  the  parishioners 
of  Strathbogie  that  the  Church  claimed  to  exercise 
jurisdiction.  Men  appointed  by  her  to  minister  to  the 
edification  of  "  the  body  of  Christ,"  the  Church  made 
visible  in  the  persons  of  the  parishioners,  poured  into 
Strathbogie.  Any  meadow,  any  open  space  by  the  high- 
way,' afforded  such  scope  for  preaching  as  had  never 
been  complained  of  as  incommodious  by  Christ  Himself. 
Every  wimpling  burn  could  serve  for  baptism. 

The  Church,  we  may  be  sure,  would  send  efficient 
men  to  represent  her  in  Strathbogie,  men  of  contagious 
faith  and  burning  word,  whom  the  people  would  be  glad 
to  listen  to,  and  who,  by  the  mere  echo  of  theu'  voices 
in  exhortation  and  in  prayer,  would  make  the  cliffs  and 
stony  dells  of  Bogie  cry  out  against  the  hireling  pastors 
that  were  bent  on  forcing  an  ahen  shepherd  on  the 
flock.  For  the  farmers  and  peasants  of  the  district, 
who  entered  with  the  keenest  interest  into  the  dis- 
pute, and  were  probably  more  capable  of  appreciathig 
such   an  intellectual  entertainment  than  any   peasantry 


176  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

in  Europe,  the  excitement  must  have  been  pungently 
delightful. 

But  this  was  obviously  not  what  the  seven  meant 
when  they  asked  the  Court  of  Session  to  save  them  from 
molestation.  Once  more,  therefore,  they  applied  to  the 
law  Lords  who  had  assumed  the  government  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  to  serve  interdicts  upon  those  ministers  whom 
she  had  sent  to  preach  and  dispense  the  sacraments  in 
the  parishes  of  the  suspended  Presbytery.  The  undaunted 
Dean  was  ready.  The  petition  was  granted.  Interdicts 
were  served  upon  the  preachers,  forbidding  them  to 
preacli  in  Strathbogie. 

The  Church  now  deliberately  defied  the  Court.  No 
power  on  earth  had  a  right  to  forbid  her  to  guard  the 
spiritual  interests  of  the  fiocks  committed  to  her  care. 
Nor  were  her  loyal  sons  afraid  ta  do  her  bidding  and  to 
encounter  the  foe.  "  Ministers  hastened  to  Strathbogie 
at  the  call  of  the  Church."  They  were  duly  served  with 
interdicts.  But  the  Dean,  or  some  other  power  not 
unveiled,  considered  it  discreet  to  shrink  from  enforcing 
the  interdicts  by  actual  arrests.  It  would  indeed  have 
been  a  picpiant  complication  of  the  business  if  mmisters 
of  the  Established  Church  had  been  imprisoned  for 
preaching  in  Strathbogie,  while  all  other  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  preaching  men  and  women,  including  infidels 
and  followers  of  Joanna  Southcote,  might  on  mere 
principles  of  toleration  hold  forth  in  it  to  their  hearts' 
content.  Arrests  did  not  take  place,  but  the  risk  was 
boldly  encountered.  All  the  leaders  were  ready  to  go, 
and  many  of  the  foremost  men  did  go.  Candlish  went, 
and  Begg  went,  and  Guthrie  went,  and  the  haughs  and 


LAW  AND  GOSPEL THE  REEL  OF  BOGIE.       177 

holms  of  Bogie  rang  with  such  eloquence  as  they  had 
never  heard  since  they  emerged  from  the  prmieval  sea. 
Keminiscences  or  imaginations  linger  probably  in  not  a 
few  heads  of  secularist  caricatures  of  the  period,  in  which 
the  intruding  Non-intrusionists,  short  Candlish  and  long 
shaggy  -  headed  Cunningham,  brisk  Begg  and  apostolic 
Gordon,  were  seen  kicking  up  their  heels,  and  flourishing 
their  interdicts  and  snapping  their  fingers  at  the  Court  of 
Session,  in  this  newest  variation  of  the  Eeel  of  Bogie. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  end,  however,  had  not  yet  come.  Mr.  Edwards 
was  not  installed  in  the  manse  of  Marnoch,  and  his 
object  was  to  be  so  without  delay.  The  seven  Presby- 
ters who  had  stood  by  hun  hitherto  were  not  disposed  to 
desert  him  now,  but  they  were  anxious  to  proceed  as  little 
as  possible  on  their  own  initiative,  or  without  feeling 
themselves  safeguarded  by  the  law  of  the  land.  Turning 
to  the  Court  of  Session,  Mr.  Edwards  obtamed  what  was 
in  effect  a  positive  injunction  to  the  Presbytery  to  proceed 
with  his  settlement. 

The  suspended  seven  obeyed.  In  the  dead  of  winter, 
— January  1841, — when  the  land  lay  shrouded  in  snow, 
the  parishioners  of  Marnoch,  and  with  them  a  multitude 
of  neighbours  from  all  parts  of  the  district,  assembled 
round  their  parish  church  to  witness  the  attempt  to 
thrust  Mr.  Edwards  into  the  charge.  When  the  doors 
were  opened,  the  whole  of  the  body  of  the  church  was 
occupied  by  the  parishioners,  the  galleries  being  filled 
to  overflowing  by  strangers.  The  meeting  having  been 
constituted,  a  parishioner  of  the  name  of  Murray  rose  up^ 
and,  describing  hmiself  as  a  member  of  the  Church  of 

178 


LAW  AND  GOSPEL MA  ENOCH.  179 

Scotland,  and  an  elder  of  the  parish  of  Marnoch,  asked 
the  Moderator,  the  suspended  minister  of  Keith,  whether 
he  came  there  by  authority  of  the  General  Assembly. 
Answer  was  declined,  except  on  condition  that  Mr. 
Murray  and  his  fellow-parishioners  should  recognise  the 
suspended  ministers  as  a  Presbytery,  which  they  per- 
emptorily refused  to  do.  Mr.  Duncan,  agent  for  the 
elders  and  communicants,  pressed  the  claim  of  Mr. 
Murray  to  an  answer.  "  As  an  elder  of  the  parish, 
Mr.  Murray  asks  a  question.  He  believes  that  yoii 
have  no  right  here  at  all."  Thus  pressed,  the  Moderator 
said,  "  We  are  here  as  the  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie, — 
a  part  of  the  National  Church  assembled  in  the  name 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  At  this  there  was  a  great 
manifestation  of  feeling  in  the  audience,  for  these 
Scottish  peasants  do  not  identify  the  Court  of  Session 
with  the  Church  of  their  fathers.  In  two  successive 
attempts,  Mr.  Duncan  tried  to  bring  the  Moderator  to 
an  explicit  repudiation  of  the  authority  of  the  General 
Assembly,  but  in  vain.  "  We  are  here  met,"  said  the 
Moderator,  "  as  the  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie,  and  under 
the  protection  of  the  law  of  the  land." 

In  the  name  of  the  congregation, '  Mr.  Duncan  now 
read  a  protest  against  the  induction,  bearing  the  signatures 
of  the  elders  and  450  comnmnicants.  It  expressed  the 
"  extreme  pain  and  disappointment "  with  which  the 
parishioners  looked  upon  the  so  -  called  Presbyters  "  as 
suspended  ministers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland."  Before 
a  competent  Church  Court,  they  were  fully  prepared  to 
substantiate  their  objections  to  Mr.  Edwards,  which,  they 
said,  were  not  frivolous,  but  grave  enough  to  warrant  de- 


180  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

position.  They  earnestly  begged  the  suspended  ministers 
"  to  avoid  the  desecration  of  the  ordinance  of  ordination," 
and  "  solemnly,  and  as  in  the  presence  of  the  great  and 
only  Head  of  the  Church,"  averred  that,  should  the 
desecration  be  accomplished,  they  would  repudiate  and 
disown  it,  and  refuse  to  regard  Mr.  Edwards  as  minister 
of  Marnoch.  The  proceedings  of  the  pretended  Presby- 
tery involved,  in  their  view,  "  the  most  heinous  guilt  and 
fearful  responsibility,"  dishonour  to  religion  and  "  cruel 
injury  to  the  spiritual  interests  of  a  united  Christian 
congregation."  So  said  the  spokesman  of  the  parishioners. 
On  finishing  this  document,  Mr.  Duncan  announced 
that  the  parishioners  of  Marnoch  could  take  no  further 
part  in  these  unconstitutional  proceedings,  or  remam  to 
witness  the  forcing  of  a  minister  on  the  people.  Without 
tumult  or  outcry,  in  silent  strength  of  resolution,  the 
tension  of  their  lips  and  the  hot  tears  oozing  from  their 
eyes  alone  indicatmg  the  depth  of  their  feelings,  the 
people  gathered  up  theii'  Bibles  and  moved  out  of  the 
church.  Does  it  not  again  remind  us  of  Macaulay's 
words  about  that  people  whose  "  wildest  popular  excesses  " 
bear  trace  of  "  the  gravity  of  judicial  proceedings  and  of 
the  solemnity  of  religious  rites  "  ?  Thoughtful  onlookers 
felt  that  they  had  never  seen  before  and  would  never  see 
again  a  spectacle  so  full  of  moral  beauty.  "  No  word  of 
disrespect  or  reproach  escaped  them."  "  There  were 
grey  -  headed  men  among  them,"  wrote  Hugh  Miller, 
"  who  had  worshipped "  within  these  walls  "  for  more 
than  half  a  century, — men,  too,  in  the  vigorous  prune  of 
manhood, — others  just  entering  on  the  stage  of  active 
life.      All  rose  and  all  went  away, — many  of  them  in 


LAW  AND  GOSPEL MA  ENOCH.  181 

tears.  It  was  the  church  in  which,  Sabbath  after 
Sabbath,  their  fathers  had  met  to  worsliip ;  it  had  formed 
the  centre  of  many  a  solemn  association,  many  a  sacred 
attraction ;  and  they  were  now  quitting  it  for  ever." 

Tlie  whole  area  of  the  church  became  vacant.  The 
people  passed  out  into  the  cold  wintry  air,  and,  proceeding 
to  a  snow  -  clad  hollow  below  the  knoll  on  which  the 
church  was  built,  grouped  themselves  together  for  a  few 
minutes,  and  resolved  to  retire  straightway  to  their 
homes.  Dignity,  solemnity,  loyalty  to  all  that  is  morally 
beautiful  in  human  nature,  characterised  their  conduct 
from  first  to  last. 

Sad  as  it  was  for  these  parishioners  to  quit  the  walls 
in  which  they  had  worshipped  since  childhood,  they  well 
knew  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  did  not  forsake  them. 
The  husk  of  endowment  had  been  snatched  away,  the 
kernel  of  spiritual  Christianity  was  well  cared  for  by 
the  Church.  When  the  people  vetoed  Mr.  Edwards,  the 
patron,  as  was  in  a  great  majority  of  instances  the  case, 
had  shown  no  objection  to  co-operate  with  the  Church 
and  the  congregation  in  settling  another  man,  and  had 
issued  a  second  presentation  in  favour  of  Mr.  D.  Henry. 
It  is  a  significant  fact  that,  both  in  relation  to  Crown 
patronage  and  private  patronage,  the  Church  might  never 
have  got  into  difficulty  had  it  not  been  for  the  officious- 
ness  of  lawyers.  Mr.  Henry,  acceptable  to  the  people, 
was  in  due  course  ordained  minister  of  the  parish. 
He  had  as  yet  no  churcli,  no  stipend.  But  the  heart 
of  Scotland  had  been  touched  by  the  spectacle  of 
the  Court  of  Session  settlement  in  Marnoch,  and  there 
was   no   insnporal)lo   difficulty  either  in   building    liim    a 


182  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

church  or  in  providuig  him  with  a  Kving.  A  large 
church,  with  a  church  -  tower  and  "  a  handsome  and 
commodious  parsonage "  unmediately  adjoining,  arose  in 
the  outskbts  of  the  village  of  Marnoch.  "  The  parish 
church  still  stands  on  the  hill,  but  the  parish  families 
have  ceased  to  go  up  to  it  ever  since  that  wintry  day  when 
it  ceased  to  be  occupied  by  a  minister  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  and  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  ministry  pro- 
vided for  it  by  the  Court  of  Session.  The  National 
Church,  whose  principles  and  whose  honour  they  so  nobly 
upheld  m  1841,  was  in  1843  disestablished  like  them- 
selves, —  and  they  and  their  minister  have,  since  the 
Disruption,  formed  part  and  parcel  of  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland." 

It  is  necessary  to  take  a  glance — a  brief  and  cursory 
glance  will  be  enough — within  the  walls  from  which  the 
flock  had  retired,  in  order  to  see  how  the  work  of  ordina- 
tion was  proceeded  with  by  that  Presbytery  which,  sul)- 
niitting  to  act  as  part  of  the  official  machinery  wherel)y 
the  Court  of  Session  had  superseded  the  Courts  of  the 
Church,  still  affirmed  itself  to  be  part  of  the  National 
Church  and  obedient  to  the  law  of  the  land. 

No  sooner  was  the  area  laid  bare  by  the  departure  of 
the  parishioners,  than  the  mixed  multitude  that  filled  the 
galleries  rushed,  with  tumult  and  Hinging  of  snowballs, 
into  the  vacant  space.  "  The  unhappy  intrusionist 
ministers  were  pelted  with  snowballs  and  other  disagree- 
able though  not  very  deadly  missiles,  while  shouts  and 
groans  and  hisses  assailed  them."  There  were  menacing 
symptoms  of  a  riot ;  but  a  magistrate,  of  firm  nerve  anil 
known  to  be  in  sympathy  with  the  cause  of  Church  and 


LA  IV  AND  GOSPEL MA  ENOCH.  183 

people,  having  been  promptly  sent  for,  had  little  difficulty 
in  restoring  tranquillity.  The  ordination  then  took  place 
with  the  usual  formalities,  one  of  these  being  that  the 
Dean's  minister  professed  his  belief  in  "  the  whole 
doctrine  contained  in  the  Confession  of  Faith."  One 
part  of  that  doctrine  is,  that  the  government  of  the 
Church  is  divhiely  placed  in  the  hands  of  Church  officers, 
"  distinct  from  the  Civil  Magistrate." 


CHAPTEK  XXIII. 
t^e  (^00em6f^  of  1841— (J?afronage> 

IT  was  out  of  patronage  that  all  the  troubles  of  the 
Church  had  arisen.  From  the  sixteenth  century 
she  had  been  engaged  intermittently  in  conflict  with  the 
system,  never  quite  conquering  it,  always  feeling  it  to  be 
at  variance  with  Christian  freedom.  Even  the  Moderates 
had  never  adopted  it  so  openly  as  to  try  to  abolish  tlie 
congregational  call ;  and  the  High  Presbyterian  party, 
looking  upon  its  reintroduction  by  the  Act  of  Queen 
Anne,  after  temporary  expulsion,  as  a  violation  of  the 
Union,  had  constantly  and  keenly  made  war  upon  it. 

Andrew  Thomson  had  organised  an  association  for 
gradually  buying  up  patrons'  rights,  and  giving  full  effect 
to  the  call.  One  of  Thomson's  most  ardent  coadjutors  in 
this  movement  had  been  Cunningham ;  but  in  Thomson's 
lifetune  Cunningham  had  not  proposed  that  the  Church 
should,  either  by  legislation  of  her  own  or  by  appeal 
to  Parliament,  make  a  complete  end  of  patronage. 
Acquainted  as  he  was  with  every  nook  and  by-way  of 
Scottish  Church  history,  he  was  aware  that,  in  1642, 
when  the  Church  was  in  great  power,  she  had  not  con- 


THE  ASSEMBL  Y  OF  x%i,\  — PA  TR  ON  A  GE.  185 

sidereJ  it  her  duty  to  sweep  patronage  wholly  away,  but 
had  arranged  a  method  by  which  its  bad  effects  were 
minimised.  He  would  have  been  content  to  see  patron- 
age and  parochial  liberty  reconciled,  as  they  were  by  the 
Veto  Act,  that  felicitous  measure  which,  when  patrons 
were  devout  and  noble-minded,  and,  like  the  Crown, 
magnanimously  fair  both  to  the  Church  and  to  the  people, 
worked  with  smoothness  and  beneficence.  But  when  the 
Church  was  pertinaciously  attacked  for  having  attempted 
to  combine  the  exercise  of  patronage  with  the  edifica- 
tion of  parishioners,  and  when  great  legal  authorities 
attempted  to  make  her  jurisdiction  in  things  spiritual 
a  mere  ceremonial  accompaniment  of  the  Court  of 
Session's  jurisdiction  in  things  temporal,  then  Cunning- 
ham looked  with  fiercer  glance  upon  patronage  than  he 
had  ever  done  before,  and  threw  his  heart  into  an 
agitation  for  the  extirpation  of  the  system,  root  and 
branch.  His  plan  was  to  go  frankly  to  Parliament,  and, 
representing  that  patronage  brought  the  Church  and  the 
Court  of  Session  into  strangling  complications,  to  petition 
for  its  aljolition. 

In  the  Assembly  of  1841  he  advocated  this  course, 
branding  patronage  as  a  plant  which  God  had  not 
planted,  and  showing  that  it  neither  received  counten- 
ance from  Scripture  nor  had  ever  been  heartily  con- 
curred in  by  the  Church. 

Chalmers  had  never  been  an  impetuous  opponent  of 
patronage.  He  had  clung  to  the  idea  that,  as  one 
element  in  settlements,  it  miglit  have  no  malignant  effect. 
But  he  was  beginning  to  feel  it  to  be,  in  its  results, 
intolerable.      Candlish  kept  pace  with  Cunningliani.      A 


186  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

close  friendship  sprang  up  between  these  two.  Among 
the  laymen,  perhaps  the  most  vehement  opponent  of 
patronage  was  Mr.  Maitland  Maegill  Crichton.  Guthrie 
beat  down  the  plausibilities  of  its  defenders  with  his 
great  flail  of  common  sense. 

The  very  name  of  MacgiU  Crichton  seems  to  sound 
familiar  to  those  versed  in  Presbyterian  history,  and 
Hugh  Miller  has  remarked  how  naturally  one  would 
have  looked  for  him  among  the  vanquishers  of  Claver- 
house  at  Drumclog.  He  was  of  Herculean  build,  and  had 
outstripped  a  mail-coach  in  a  twenty  mile  race.  From 
spinal  cord  to  finger  tips  he  thrilled  with  the  devout 
patriotism  of  old  Scotland  His  qualities  as  a  platform 
speaker  were  excellent,  his  thinking  forcible,  his  words 
brief  and  strong,  winged  with  enthusiasm  for  his  piinciples 
and  his  friends,  and  prickly  with  sarcasm  for  his  adver- 
saries. Crichton  saw  the  extreme  folly  of  elaborately 
setting  up  an  Establishment,  and  then  binding  it  to  con- 
ditions that  defeated  its  primary  purpose.  "  While  Hberty 
of  conscience,"  he  said,  "  should  be  preserved  inviolate,  and 
all  left  free  to  conform  or  to  dissent  as  they  thought  fit, 
the  National  Church  ought  to  be  restricted  and  crippled 
by  no  conditions  calculated  to  repel  the  people  from  her 
communion."  "  Is  it,"  he  asked,  "  consistent  with  the 
purity  of  the  CTiurch,  or  with  the  spiritual  liberty  of 
Christ's  people,  that  the  sacred  trust  of  electing  pastors 
should  not  only  be  taken  from  the  members  of  the 
CTiurch,  but  so  disposed  as  common  worldly  property, 
that  all  its  holders  may  be — and,  in  fact,  the  great 
majority  are — either  alien  or  hostile  to  her  communion  ? " 
With  a  warmth  recallincr  that  of  Hutjh   Miller  on  the 


THE  ASSEMBL  V  OF  1841 PA TRONAGE.  187 

same  subject,  he  denounced  the  cakniiny  that  Scottish 
congregations  were  less  capable  than  patrons  of  electing 
their  ministers.  "  Can  it  for  an  instant  be  admitted  that 
the  voice  of  the  congregation,  speaking  by  the  majority 
of  its  communicants,  in  a  matter  of  sucli  dear  and  sacred 
interest  to  themselves  and  to  their  children,  is  entitled 
to  no  more  weight  than  the  voice  of  my  lord  or  squire, 
himself  an  alien  to  our  Church,  who  may  dictate  to  the 
people  their  future  pastor  ?  I  proclaim  such  a  statement 
to  be  a  libel  upon  my  countrymen,  the  Christian  people 
of  Scotland." 

But  the  body  of  the  Evangelicals  were  not  yet  able 
to  keep  up  with  Cunningham,  Candlish,  and  Macgill 
Crichton.  It  was  almost  a  drawn  battle  between  these 
and  the  phalanx  of  the  Moderates,  reinforced  by  not  a 
few  of  the  weaker-kneed  members  of  the  opposite  party. 
Dr.  Cook  had  138  votes,  Cunningham  135,  in  the  all 
but  drawn  battle,  in  the  Assembly  of  1841,  on  the 
AboHtion  of  Patronage. 


CHAPTEE  XXIV. 

BY  no  means  so  nearly  balanced  were  the  parties  on 
the  crucial  question,  also  discussed  in  the  Assembly 
of  1841,  of  the  attitude  which  the  Church  ought  now 
to  assume  toward  the  Legislature.  The  Earl  of  Aberdeen 
had  already  made  his  well-meant  but  feeble  and  ill- 
starred  attempt  to  pass  such  a  measure  as  might  restore 
peace  between  the  Church  and  the  Court  of  Session. 
His  proposal  was  to  give  the  people  power  to  reject  for 
specified  reasons.  It  bred  an  infinitude  of  wrangling 
and  heartburning, — nothing  else.  The  Duke  of  Argyll 
had  now  prepared  a  Bill  which,  being  substantially  at 
one  with  the  Veto  Act,  would  have  removed  the 
cause  of  contention.  The  Evangelicals  most  earnestly 
desired,  therefore,  that  the  Moderate  party  should 
combine  with  them  in  presenting  a  united  front  to 
the  Legislature  in  support  of  the  Duke's  measure. 
Dubious  as  it  might  be  whether  the  House  of  Lords 
would  in  any  case  lend  a  favourable  consideration 
to  the  Bill,  they  were  certainly  more  likely  to  do 
so    if    it    came    with    the    unanimous    approval    of    the 


THE  MODERATES  STRIKE  THEIR  FLAG.  189 

Assembly  tlian    if    it    were    opposed    by    the    Moderate 
party. 

A  resohition,  therefore,  was  moved  by  Candlish,  pledging 
the  Assembly  to  offer  no  opposition  to  "  a  measure  fitted 
to  put  an  end  to  the  collision."  He  appealed  to  the 
minority,  in  a  speech  of  which  the  feeble  echo  that 
remains  is  evidently  inadequate  to  convey  to  us  any  just 
idea  of  its  pathos  or  its  power ;  but  to  judge  from  what 
has  been  said  of  it,  and  by  its  effect  at  the  time,  it  must 
have  been  a  rare  masterpiece.  Its  main  leverage  as  an 
appeal  to  the  Moderates  was  derived  from  the  terrible 
position  of  the  majority  as  shut  up  by  conscience  to 
rend  the  Establishment  in  twain  if  the  Bill  were 
rejected,  whereas  the  minority  could  not  allege  that 
they  were  bound  in  principle  to  obstruct  it.  They 
had  no  conscientious  objection  to  Non-intrusion.  Thej^ 
had  never  ceased  to  affirm  that  they  held  the  Church 
to  have  no  King  but  Christ.  Would  they  not,  for 
their  brethren's  sakes,  for  the  sake  of  the  Church  in 
whose  courts  the  two  parties  had  so  long  dwelt  to- 
gether, make  a  public  statement  to  this  effect  ?  More 
was  not  asked  of  them.  "  By  such  a  statement,"  cried 
Candlish,  "  they  will  prove  themselves  the  most  generous, 
the  most  disinterested,  the  most  seasonable  benefactors 
the  Church  ever  saw."  So  deeply  did  the  Assembly 
seem  to  be  moved,  that  he  believed  himself  to  have 
prevailed.  "  I  rejoice,"  he  said,  "  that  I  have  been 
the  humble  instrument  under  God  of  bringing  the 
House  to  its  present  state  of  mind."  "  I  am  speaking 
under  a  weight  of  responsibility  deeper  than  I  ever  felt 
before,  I  am  speaking    under  an    apprehension    of    the 


190  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

impending  calamities  with  which  our  beloved  Church  is 
threatened." 

But  he  was  mistaken.  The  tokens  of  emotion  had 
been  superficial  and  misleading.  The  Moderates  praised 
the  speaker,  were  liberal  of  polite  expressions,  but  were 
at  heart  unmoved.  They  would  not  expose  themselves 
to  the  slightest  risk  of  offending  the  civil  authorities, 
and  held  doggedly  to  the  policy  of  accepting,  with  bated 
breath  and  whispering  humbleness,  whatever  course  the 
legal  tribunals  chose  to  mark  out.  They  struck  their 
flag.  The  State  was  for  them  henceforward  the  Church. 
They  had  not  the  courage  even  of  Oliver  Twist,  and 
did  not  dare  to  ask  the  Government  to  pass  a  healing 
measure,  without  first  going  through  the  humiliation  of 
hauling  down  the  Veto  Act,  and  thus  acknowledging  that 
the  independence  of  the  Church,  of  wdiich  they  had  so 
often  talked,  did  not  enable  her  to  decline  to  be  made 
an  instrument  in  forcing  pastors  upon  parishioners.  The 
body  of  the  Moderates  voted  against  Candlish's  resolution. 
The  Duke  of  Argyll  could  tell  the  House  of  Lords  that 
his  measure  was  supported  by  230  against  125, — a 
majority  of  nearly  two  to  one, — but  he  could  not  say  that 
tlie  Church  was  unanimous  in  desiring  its  enactment. 

One  would  like  to  be  able  to  yield  something  more 
than  a  cold  theoretic  assent — to  yield  an  assent  imply- 
ing some  slight  sympathetic  warmth  —  to  the  sincere 
conscientiousness  of  the  noblest  of  the  Moderates,  to 
Kobertson,  of  Ellon,  for  example,  on  this  occasion.  But 
it  is  really  difficult  to  get  footing  on  so  thin  a  razor- 
edge  of  conscientious  prhiciple  as  Robertson  defined  for 
himself  and  his  brethren.     What  he  objected  to  was  the 


THE  MODERATES  STRIKE  THEIR  FLAG.  191 

prevalence  allowed  to  Christian  will,  apart  from  specified 
reasons.  "  I  am  not,"  said  Kobertson,  "  without  a  ground- 
work of  principle  for  what  I  state  in  this  House.  The 
Scriptures  of  truth  assert  that  Christian  men,  in  dealing 
with  one  another,  when  they  have  a  charge  to  make, 
should  have  reasons  for  the  charge ;  and  surely,  when 
Christian  men  have  a  charge  against  the  person  appointed 
to  be  their  pastor,  they  should  have  reasons  to  give  for  it, 
openly  and  fairly,  that  all  the  world  may  judge  of  it."  ^ 

It  is  not  easy  to  understand  how,  except  in  the  heat  of 
debate,  Eobertson  could  have  imagined  that  there  was 
any  analogy  between  bringing  a  charge  against  a  man 
and  declming  to  have  him  as  a  pastor.  Does  one  make 
a  charge  against  a  parliamentary  candidate  when  he 
refuses  him  as  his  representative  ?  Does  a  woman  make 
a  charge  against  a  man  when  she  declines  him  as  a 
husband  ?  A  minister  might  be  a  perfect  crampfish  in 
all  spiritual  respects,  and  yet  challenge  accusation  in  any 
Court  in  the  world.  It  was  a  curiously  constituted  con- 
science that  could  resist  Candlish's  appeal  rather  than 
allow  Scottish  communicants  to  escape  heckling  as  to  their 
spiritual  reasons  for  disapproving  of  a  presentee.  And, 
alas !  the  fact  remains — closing  on  Moderate  brotherli- 
ness  and  intrepidity  like  a  coffin-lid — that,  until  the 
Court  of  Session  cast  menacing  glances  at  glebe  and 
stipend,  the  Moderates,  now  so  jealous  of  disapproval 
without  reasons,  had  acquiesced  smilingly  in  the  Veto 
Act! 

^  Life,  of  Robertson,  by  Charteris. 


CHAPTEE  XXV. 

THE  work  of  this  memorable  Assembly  of  1841  was 
not  yet  done.  The  seven  mmisters  formmg  the 
majority  of  the  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie  had  flagrantly 
broken  the  law  of  the  Church.  The  principal  business 
before  the  Assembly  was  to  put  discipline  in  force 
against  the  rebels.  They  had  disregarded  the  sentence 
of  suspension.  They  had  profaned  the  rites  of  ordination. 
Would  the  Church  proceed  to  their  deposition  ?  In  the 
sixteenth  century,  in  breaking  from  the  Papacy,  she  had 
professed  to  carry  over  with  her  every  power  and  privilege 
rightly  claimed  by  the  Universal  Church.  Would  she 
now  dare,  in  the  blaze  of  nineteenth  century  enlighten- 
ment, to  apply  to  the  Strathbogie  ministers  and  their 
district  the  same  discipline,  in  all  spiritual  respects, 
under  which,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  pastors  and  districts 
had  been  laid  by  the  Church  of  Rome  ? 

She  did  not  hesitate.  Chalmers  himself  made  the 
motion  that  the  seven  ministers  of  Strathbogie,  who  had 
disobeyed  the  Church  and  broken  their  ordination  vows, 
should   be   deposed   from   their  office,  and   forbidden  to 

192 


THE  SCOTTISH  HILDEB RAND.  1.93 

preacli  or  administer  the  sacraments.  Never  had  lie 
occupied  so  agitating  a  position.  Never  liad  there  been 
more  painful  conflict  in  his  breast  between  the  claims  of 
the  Establishment  and  the  claims  of  the  Church.  But 
the  victory  had  been  complete ;  and  now,  though  earnest 
and  sad,  he  was  collected,  firm,  and  calm.  The  Church, 
if  established  at  all,  must  be  estal)lished  as  a  living 
organism,  not  as  a  dead  machine.  Acknowledging  that 
the  Church  was  not  infallible,  declining  to  conjecture 
the  pleas  to  which  the  Strathbogie  ministers  might  have 
recourse  in  the  inner  court  of  conscience,  he  took  his 
stand  on  the  palpable  fact  that,  if  their  rebellion  was 
passed  over,  the  whole  fabric  of  discipline  would  come  to 
the  ground.  "  The  Church  would  be  left  without  a 
government."  If  the  Legislature,  on  being  finally  appealed 
to,  should  lay  this  down  as  the  condition  of  Establishment, 
then  the  Church  must  be  prepared  "  to  abjure  her 
connection  with  the  State." 

In  terms  of  touching  pathos,  he  expressed  his  amaze- 
ment at  the  spectacle  of  the  rude  interference  of  the 
Courts  of  law  with  the  Church,  exactly  at  the  time  when 
she  was  doing  with  conspicuous  success  what,  by  the 
nature  of  the  case,  the  State  must  be  supposed  to  wish 
her  to  do.  "  This  is  a  truly  mysterious  visitation 
which  has  come  on  the  Church  of  Scotland."  Her  area 
had  been  enlarging,  her  usefulness  had  been  increasing, 
her  beneficent  influence  had  crossed  the  threshold  of 
families,  and,  going  out  into  the  streets  and  alleys,  had 
penetrated  "  to  the  lowest  depths  of  the  people,  giving 
thereby  solidity  and  strength  to  the  basis  of  the  com- 
monwealth." She  had  been  achieving  in  it  only  "  the 
13 


194  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

primary  end  of  Cliiistianity— the  salvation  of  souls," 
but  "  the  secondary  blessmgs  of  education,  and  regularity, 
and  improved  habits,  both  economical  and  moral."  And 
just  then  it  was,  "  when  so  much  could  have  been  done 
l3y  a  conjunction  between  the  piety  of  the  Church  and 
the  patriotism  of  the  State,"  that  the  Civil  Court  strikes 
in,  and  "  a  cruel  arrest  is  laid  on  all  this  prosperity,  and 
the  vision  of  our  fondest  hopes  is  scattered  into  frag- 
ments." The  Church  could  not,  f(jr  the  bribe  of  peace, 
make  a  sacrifice  of  principle,  and  therefore  he  moved 
that  the  rebel  Presbyters  of  Strathbogie  shoidd  be 
deposed  from  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry. 

The  Moderates  now  gave  fresh  proof  that  they  had 
deserted  the  cause  of  the  Church.  Dr.  Cook  had  made 
up  his  mind  to  run  no  risks,  and  adopted  the  position 
which  every  State-Churchman,  who  feels  that  the  State 
element  and  not  the  Church  element  is  the  essential 
matter  in  the  connection,  will  naturally  adopt.  He 
held  by  the  State.  The  Church,  he  averred,  had  ex- 
ceeded her  powers  in  the  Veto  Act.  The  Court  of 
Session,  supported  by  the  House  of  Lords,  authoritat- 
ively declared  this  to  be  a  fact.  "  Consequently,  the 
determination  of  the  seven  Strathbogie  ministers  not 
to  be  guided  by  that  Act,  but  by  the  injunctions  of  the 
supreme  civil  tribunals  of  the  country,  was  in  perfect 
conformity  with  their  duty,  and  ought  not  to  have  sub- 
jected them  to  censure,  far  less  should  have  occasioned 
then-  being  served  with  a  libel,  for  the  purpose  of  their 
l)eing  deposed  should  the  lil)el  be  proved,  or  the  charges 
which  it  contains  be  admitted."  He  moved  that  the 
mhiisters  should  be  let  alone,  remainmg  in  all  respects 


THE  SCOTTISH  HILDEBRAND.  195 

as  if  no  proceedings  had  been  taken  against  them.  A 
nobleman  of  no  personal  weight  having  seconded  Dr. 
Cook's  motion,  there  rose  to  reply  the  Rev.  William 
Cunningham. 

It  was  evident  that  he  was  in  his  most  earnest  mood, 
his  whole  intellectual  nature,  his  whole  moral  nature, 
stirred  to  their  depths.  Having  put  aside  certain  irrele- 
vancies  and  generalities  with  which  the  case  had  been 
cumbered,  "  he  would  first,"  he  said,  "  venture  to  assert, 
on  the  facts  judicially  admitted  by  these  men,  that  there 
was  abundant  ground  for  maintaining  that  they  had 
broken  the  laws  of  the  Church ;  secondly,  that  they  had 
violated  theii-  ordination  vows ;  and  thiixUy,  that  they 
had  been  guilty  of  a  sin  against  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
A  buzz  of  startled  and  angry  remonstrance  ran  through 
the  Moderate  ranks  at  the  word  "  sin."  That  kind  of 
alarmed  surprise  among  his  hearers  at  the  sweep  of  his 
logic,  or  the  audacity  of  his  statement,  or  the  impetuous 
vehemence  of  his  manner,  always  acted  finely  upon 
Cunningham,  making  him  as  calmly  self-possessed  and 
proudly  defiant  as  the  thunder  of  artillery  and  the  smoke 
of  battle  have  made  some  great  generals.  He  paused ; 
gave  every  one  tune  to  reflect ;  and  then  went  on.  "  He 
never,  so  long  as  he  was  a  member  of  a  Christian  Church, 
would  give  his  consent  to  the  deposition  of  any  man  from 
the  holy  muiistry,  unless  he  could  conclusively  prove  that 
the  man  had  been  guilty  of  a  sin  against  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  "  But  if  they  were  prepared  both  to  aver  and 
conclusively  to  prove  it,  then  he  believed  that  the  sentence 
of  deposition  they  were  called  this  evening  to  pronounce, 
was  a  sentence  that  would  be  ratified  in  heaven." 


196       THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

As  he  proceeded  with  his  argument,  it  could  not  but 
be  felt  that  its  links  were  of  hannnered  iron.  In  no  age 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  her  ministers  been  per- 
mitted to  disown  her  jurisdiction  and  defy  her  commands 
without  incurring  the  supreme  penalty.  In  1648,  when 
the  Westminster  Standards  had  been  accepted,  and  the 
Church  had  not  yet  been  subjected  to  Cromwell's  physical 
force,  she  had  expressly  decreed,  "  if  any  suspended 
minister,  during  suspension,  shall  exercise  any  part  of  the 
ministerial  calling,  he  shall  be  deposed."  Glancing  back 
to  the  early  Christian  centuries,  Cunningham  showed 
that  the  Church  of  the  West  had  always  inflicted  supreme 
punishment  upon  pastors  who  defied  the  restraints  of 
disciplme.  The  ordination  vows  of  the  libelled  ministers 
were,  in  the  next  place,  explicit.  "  They  solemnly  pro- 
mised to  be  subject  to  the  judicatories  of  this  Church, 
to  maintain  the  unity  of  this  Church  against  error  and 
schism,  notwithstandmg  of  whatever  trouble  or  persecu- 
tion may  arise."  And  yet,  by  their  own  admission,  they 
had  applied  to  the  Court  of  Session  to  overrule  and 
cancel  the  discipline  of  the  Church. 

Viewing  the  matter  for  a  moment  in  the  hght  of  common 
sense  and  the  general  usage  of  civilised  life,  he  argued 
that  such  conduct  as  that  of  tlie  libelled  ministers  was  at 
variance  with  justice.  In  entering  the  ministry,  they  had 
accepted  the  spiritual  government  of  the  Church,  and 
practically  divested  themselves  of  the  right  to  apply  to 
the  Civil  Power  agahist  the  Church.  They  had  "  applied 
for  admission  into  a  certain  society,  which  imposed  certain 
restrictions  upon  that  admission.  Such  is  the  case  even 
in    many  corporations,  whicli,  with    perfect   justice   and 


THE  SCOTTISH  HILDEBRAND.  197 

equity,  bind  their  members  not  to  use  any  privileges 
they  may  receive  by  becoming  members,  as  against  the 
society  into  which  they  had  been  admitted."  If  there 
was  any  one  restriction  to  which  a  man  entering  volun- 
tarily upon  the  ministry  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  might 
be  supposed  to  subject  himself,  with  clear  consciousness 
that  he  was  doing  so,  it  was  the  restriction  of  his  right  or 
power  to  bring  the  Church  as  a  culprit  to  the  bar  of  the 
Court  of  Session. 

Keference  had  been  made  to  the  oath  of  allegiance 
taken  by  the  Strathbogie  ministers.  Cunningham 
declared  that  the  oath  of  allegiance  bound  all  subjects 
to  loyalty  to  Queen  Victoria,  but  "  by  the  Consti- 
tution of  Great  Britain "  she  had  no  spiritual  juris- 
diction in  Scotland.  "As  an  ecclesiastical  Court,  they 
were  perfectly  independent  of  all  interference  in  eccle- 
siastical matters,  even  under  the  oath  of  the  sovereign, 
who  has  no  more  authority  (in  Scotland)  to  regulate 
these  matters  than  to  levy  taxes  without  the  consent 
of  Parliament."  Since  the  Revolution  Settlement,  in 
1688,  "down  to  the  age  in  which  we  live,  no  such 
claim  as  this  had  ever  been  put  forth,  nor  any  such 
power  or  prerogative  been  enjoyed,  with  respect  to  Scot- 
land, by  sovereigns  of  Great  Britain,  or  any  officer  holding 
his  powers  from  the  sovereign." 

There  remained  the  sin,  in  its  strictest  sense,  against 
Christ,  which  the  speaker  liad  imputed  to  the  ministers. 
By  their  own  statement  they  had  applied  to  the  Court 
of  Session  to  suspend  tlie  sentence  of  the  Church.  "  Now 
this  latter  step,"  said  Cunningham,  "  was  plainly  a 
renunciation  of  the  allegiance  they  owed  to  the  Lord  Jesus 


198  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Christ  as  the  only  Kmg  and  Head  of  His  Church ;  it 
was  plainly  a  denial  of  His  sole  Headship  and  supremacy, 
and  of  the  truth  contained  in  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
and  ratified  by  the  law  of  the  land,  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
King  and  Head  of  His  Church.  It  plainly  involved  a 
denial  of  the  position  that  to  His  office-bearers,  and  to 
them  alone,  is  committed  the  power  of  the  keys.  Would 
any  one  venture  to  deny  that  the  Court  of  Session  had 
assumed  the  power  of  the  keys,  and  had  thereby  broken 
both  the  law  of  God  and  the  law  of  the  land,  and  been 
guilty  of  great  sm  ?  And  of  all  this  sin  these  men  were 
tlie  authors  and  originators."  The  offence,  therefore,  of 
the  mmisters  was  "  neither  more  nor  less  than  high 
treason  agamst  Jesus  Christ,  since  it  was  a  blow  aimed 
at  the  very  existence  of  the  Church  as  a  distinct  society, 
exercising  functions  and  enjoying  privileges  derived  from 
Him,  and  to  be  regulated  by  His  word." 

Thus  did  the  Hildebrand  of  the  Eeformed  Cathohc 
Church  in  Scotland  assert  the  inalienable  right  and  duty 
of  the  Church  to  give  effect  to  the  law  of  Christ  in  His 
visible  kingdom  upon  earth.  It  was  not  permitted  to 
the  Church  to  transfer  to  the  State  that  guardianship 
of  the  liberties  and  rights  of  the  visible  body  of  Christ 
which  He  had  committed  to  herself.  Cunningham  did 
not  condescend  even  to  argue  with  those  who  traced  the 
spiritual  independence  of  the  Church  to  the  concession 
of  the  State.  The  State  could  not  confer  what  it  was  a 
sin  on  the  part  of  the  State  to  usurp.  It  was  an  aggra- 
vation of  the  sin  of  the  ministers  that  they  had  consented 
to  act  as  accomplices  and  tools  of  the  Civil  Power  in  its 
encroachments  on  the  spuitual  jurisdiction  of  the  Church. 


THE  SCOTTISH  HILDE BRAND.  199 

In  the  impetuosity  ()f  his  assault  upon  the  Church's  foes, 
Cunningham  seemed,  in  fact,  to  proceed  on  the  principle 
of  cutting  the  Church  clear  of  the  State  and  its  tem- 
poralities together,  leaving  it  to  dispose  of  the  wreck 
of  Establishment  as  it  thought  fit,  and  looking  only 
heavenward  for  guidance  and  support. 

If  the  Presbyterian  doctrine  of  the  Headship  is  un- 
reservedly accepted, — if  the  Church  cannot,  without 
disloyalty  to  Christ,  abdicate  self-government  in  matters 
spiritual, — the  main  contention  of  Cunnmgham's  speech 
on  the  deposition  of  the  Strathbogie  ministers  is  un- 
answerable. The  Moderate  party,  determined  to  main- 
tain at  all  hazards  the  connection  with  the  State,  put 
forward  its  ablest  man  to  endeavour  to  show  that  the 
violation  of  principle  was  not  so  clear,  the  crisis  not 
so  grave,  as  Cunningham  averred.  Mr.  Robertson,  of 
Ellon,  respected  by  both  sections  of  the  Assembly,  a 
man  of  devout  character  and  solid  though  not  shining- 
parts,  argued  with  dexterity  on  the  difficulties  involved 
in  the  position  of  the  Strathljogie  ministers,  urguig 
that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  had  been  perplexed 
between  the  Courts  of  the  Church  and  the  Courts  of 
the  State,  and  that  it  was  hard  to  inilict  on  them 
the  tremendous  punishment  of  deposition  for  getting 
mystified  between  the  two.  "  It  was  true  that  these 
gentlemen  had  come  under  the  ordination  vows ;  and  he 
had  no  doubt  that  they  took  these  vows  honestly,  and 
firmly  determined  to  adhere  to  them  in  the  spirit  in 
which  they  were  taken.  But  he  must  also  advert  to  the 
fact  that  these  gentlemen  had  previously  taken  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  Constitution  of  the  country,  and  were 


200  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

bound  to  adhere  to  that  Constitution  as  explained  by  the 
Civil  Courts  of  the  country." 

He  tried  also,  with  ingenious  amiability,  to  have  it 
taken  for  granted  that  they  had  really,  in  the  silence 
of  their  consciences,  appealed  to  the  Head  of  the  Church 
against  the  sentence  of  suspension  before  disregarding  it. 
But  the  keen  eye  of  Mr.  Dunlop  discovered  in  their  own 
statement  an  awkward  comment  on  this  view  of  their 
position.  "  After  being  suspended,"  they  had  themselves 
avowed,  "  they  discharged  no  duties  till  after  the  decision 
of  the  Civil  Court "  cancelling  the  sentence  of  then-  eccle- 
siastical superiors.  Fear  of  the  Civil  Power,  and  not  a 
conviction  that  the  Church  was  breaking  Christ's  law, 
had  been  theii'  motive.  In  short,  they  had  obeyed  the 
State,  in  direct  contravention  of  the  commands  of  the 
Church ;  that  was  a  palpable  fact ;  and  if  the  Crown 
Eights  of  the  Eedeemer  had  any  meaning  in  the  creed 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  this  was  to  set  those  Crown 
Eights  at  nought.  The  Assembly  voted  v/ith  Chalmers 
and  Cunningham,  against  Cook  and  Eobertson,  by  222 
against  125.  That  same  night  the  sentence  of  deposition 
upon  the  seven  Strathbogie  ministers  was  solemnly 
pronounced  by  Dr.  Chalmers. 

"  Eatified  in  heaven  "  was  most  assuredly  the  comment 
upon  all  this,  which,  if  not  by  word  of  lip,  then  by 
swelling  of  breast  and  tears  of  solemn  joy,  passed  from 
group  to  group  of  patriot  Presbyterians  throughout  Scot- 
land. But  the  austerity  of  the  Church  added  immensely 
to  her  difficulties.  Easy-going,  good-natured  statesmen 
were  offended  and  vaguely  alarmed.  Soft-hearted  people 
wavered.      There  is  a  logic  of  the  feelings  as  well  as  of 


THE  SCOTTISH  HILDEBRAND.  201 

the  intellect  that  influences  events.  The  Strathbogie 
seven  might  be  utterly  indefensible,  but  they  had  been 
weak  rather  than  wicked.  They  would  have  acted  as 
heroes  if  they  could,  and  to  many  it  seemed  hard  to 
depose  them  from  the  ministry  and  put  the  biand  of 
sin  ujion  them  for  not  deciding  heroically  between  Church 
and  State. 

Dr.  Buchanan  mentions,  somewhat  curtly,  that  the  Eev. 
Mr.  Clark,  of  Inverness,  supported  by  Mr.  Brodie,  of  Moni- 
mail,  came  forward  at  the  last  moment,  before  the  motion 
for  deposition  was  made  by  Chalmers,  and  urged  that  the 
sentence  should  be  suspension  for  an  indefinite  time.  Mi: 
Clark  had  been  an  Evangelical  of  unsullied  record,  and 
was  distinguished  in  private  life  by  sympathy,  gentleness, 
and  kindness.  No  one  could  better  represent  than  he 
the  logic  of  the  heart.  By  adopting  his  suggestion, 
which  was  not  listened  to,  a  golden  bridge  might  have 
been  left  for  the  return  of  the  banished,  and  the  Moder- 
ates and  their  allies  in  Parliament  might  have  felt  that 
the  Church  was  in  a  placable  mood.  But  who  could 
now  wish  that  half -measures  had  been  adopted  ? 


CHAPTEE  XXVL 

A  MONG  the  supporters  of  Cunningham  in  his  direct 
-^-*-  assault  upon  patronage,  and  in  his  terrible  argu- 
ment against  the  mutineers  of  Strathbogie,  was  Thomas 
Guthrie.  A  very  noticeable  figure,  he,  among  the  fathers 
and  founders  of  the  Free  Church.  In  the  bloom  of  early 
manhood,  six  feet  three  in  height,  eager  for  battle  as  the 
war-horse  in  Job,  but  inspired  only  by  the  ambitions  of 
the  army  of  Christ,  he  had  lately  been  discovered  in  a 
covmtry  parish  and  almost  dragged  to  Edinburgh  and 
fame.  Less  completely  cased  in  the  panoply  of  theo- 
logical system  than  Cunningham,  less  brilliant  and 
dazzlingly  quick  in  his  intellectual  action  than  Candlisli, 
and  therefore  less  powerful  tlian  they  in  dealing  with 
cultured  and  critical  audiences,  he  could  sway  a  common 
crowd  more  absolutely  than  either.  If  theirs  was  more 
close,  formal,  invulnerable  logic,  lie  had  more  of  varying 
colour  and  of  fascinating  pleasantness.  And  as  we  look 
backward  across  the  intervening  years,  we  perceive  that 
neither  of  those  two  rose  subsequently  so  conspicuously 
above  his  Disruption   renown  as   Guthrie,  or  had,  at  the 


GUTHRIE.  203 

time  of  his  death,  so  unmistakably  the  whole  English- 
speaking  race  for  admirers  and  onlookers.  Even  Dr.  Duff 
lived  to  see  that  Guthrie's  fame  had  filled  the  world, — 
that  no  Scotchman's,  and  "assuredly  no  Free  Churchman's, 
since  the  death  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  bulked  so  largely  as  his." 
The  eloquence  that  had  charmed  the  simple  parishioners 
of  Arbiilot  proved  potent  to  move  great  audiences  in 
Manchester  and  London.  Florid  as  a  "  careless  ordered 
garden,"  or  a  picturesque  forest  avenue,  festooned  with 
tendrils  and  loosely  hung  with  draperies  of  eglantine  and 
the  mountain  rose,  —  exhaustless  in  anecdote,  rich  in 
broad  innocent  fun,  and  with  pathos  welling  up  straight 
from  the  heart, — the  oratory  of  Guthrie  was  separated 
by  a  liair's-breadth  from  turgid  and  tawdry  bombast,  but 
yet  was  so  absolutely  sincere,  so  racy,  so  much  in  keeping 
with  the  aspect  and  enunciation  of  the  man,  that  it  was 
always  and  magnificently  successful. 

It  would  be  wrong  to  infer  that  the  perfect  sincerity 
of  the  orator  implied  in  every  case  that  his  anecdotes  and 
illustrations  were  literal  transcripts  of  fact.  Or  rather,  we 
may  say  that,  except  in  cases  of  arithmetical  statement, 
his  imaginative  genius,  perhaps  without  his  knowing  it,  cast 
a  light,  a  colour,  an  indefinable  addition  upon  the  naked 
fact.  The  eye  sees  what  it  brings  with  it  the  faculty 
to  see,  and  the  imaginative  artist  always  obeys  Turner's 
rule  of  painting  his  impressions.  He  gives  tlie  truth, 
but  he  has  a  way  of  putting  it  which  is  his  own.  The 
glance  of  Guthrie's  eye  made  a  thing  more  piquant  than 
it  found  it.  An  illustration  of  our  meanmg,  trivial  in 
itself,  occurs  in  one  of  liis  own  illustrations,  derived  from 
his  recollections  of  a  stroll  through  London.     We  have  all 


204  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

seen  those  collections  of  naturally  hostile  animals,  forced  to 
live  in  one  cage,  and  suspend  theii*  natural  instincts,  whose 
listless  and  torpid  repose  belies  too  sadly  their  description 
as  a  "  happy  family."  Guthrie  saw  one  such  family,  and 
this  is  his  account  of  it :  "I  saw  the  mavis  asleep  under 
the  wing  of  a  hawk ;  and  an  old,  grave,  reverend  owl 
looking  down  most  complacently  on  a  little  mouse ;  and, 
with  the  restless  activity  of  his  species,  I  saw  the  monkey 
sitting  on  a  perch,  scratching  his  head  for  an  idea,  I 
presume,  and  then  reach  down  his  long  arm  to  seize  a  big 
rat  by  the  tail,  and,  lifting  it  to  his  breast,  dandle  it  like 
a  baby ! "  The  hawk,  the  mavis,  the  owl,  the  mouse,  the 
monkey,  the  rat,  were  doubtless  all  there.  Guthrie 
stated  with  veracity  the  impression  they  made  upon  him. 
But  it  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  their  attitudes  and 
avocations  should  have  been  so  hyper  -  idyllic  as  he 
depicts  them.  Thus,  however,  it  was  that  the  flash  of 
his  genius,  so  full  of  humour  and  quaint  feelmg,  lit  up 
with  a  comicality,  a  pathos,  a  graphic  vividness,  circum- 
stances which,  to  a  common  observer,  might  have  been 
merely  commonplace. 

At  other  times,  however,  we  are  reminded,  by  a  self- 
evidencing  literalness  of  detail,  that  no  rule  can  be  laid 
down  for  the  operations  of  descriptive  genius.  An 
indubitable  literalness  pertains  to  Guthrie's  description 
of  the  proceedings  of  his  large  Scotch  dog.  Bob,  which 
had  been  sent  fifteen  miles  away  in  disgrace  for  worrying 
cats,  and  had  come  back  of  his  own  accord.  "  On  going 
to  the  manse,"  says  Guthrie, "  I  found  Bob  outside  the  gate, 
as  fiat,  prostrate,  and  motionless  as  if  he  had  been  stone 
dead.      It  was  plain   he  knew  as  well  as  I  did  that  he 


GUTHRIE.  205 

had  been  banished,  and  had  returned  without  leave,  and 
was  liable  to  l>e  lianged,  drowned,  sliot,  or  otherwise 
punished  at  will.  I  w^ent  up  to  hmi,  and  stood  over  him 
for  a  while  in  ominous  silence.  No  wagging  of  his  tail, 
or  movement  in  any  limb  ;  but  there  he  lay  as  if  he  had 
been  killed  and  flattened  by  a  heavy  roller,  only  that, 
with  his  large,  beautiful  eyes  half-shut,  he  kept  winking 
and  looking  up  in  my  face  wdth  a  most  pitiful  and 
penitent  and  pleading  expression  in  his  own.  There  was 
no  resisting  the  dumb  but  eloquent  appeal.  I  gave  way, 
and  exclaimed  in  cheerful  tones,  '  Is  this  you.  Bob  ? '  In 
an  mstant,  knowing  that  lie  was  forgiven  and  restored, 
he  rose  at  one  mighty  bound  into  the  air,  circling  round 
and  round  me,  and  ever  and  anon,  in  the  power  and  ful- 
ness of  his  joy,  nearly  leaping  over  my  head."  That  is 
a  photograph. 

A  word  of  apology  may  Ije  due  to  the  reader  for 
beguiling  him  even  momentarily  into  the  trivialities  of 
literary  criticism,  when  our  main  subject  is  identified 
with  the  dearest  and  most  sacred  interests  of  nations ; 
but  Guthrie  made  conscience  even  of  his  methods  of 
literary  composition ;  and  if  we  would  know  the  man,  and 
get  close  up  to  him, — to  hear,  so  to  speak,  the  beating 
of  his  heart, — we  shall  do  well  to  realise  how  vividly 
awake  he  was  to  everything  of  which  his  observational 
faculty  could  take  account,  from  dogs  and  monkeys  up 
to  street  boys  and  State  Churches.  Interested  in  all 
things,  he  made  all  things  interesting.  "  I  have  a  dis- 
tinct recollection,"  said  one  who  knew  him  in  his  country 
charge,  "  of  admiring  the  fivaciousness  which  he  imparted 
to  the  sacred  narrative ; "  and  another,  speaking  also  of 


206  .    THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

what  he  had  seen  at  Ai'birlot,  tells  us  how  "  the  dull  eve 
of  the  cow-boy  and  of  the  servant  girl,  who  had  been 
toiling  all  the  week  among  the  horses  and  cows,  im- 
mediately brightened  up"  when  Guthrie  addressed  them. 

He  got  much  from  nature,  little  from  books.  Xo  man 
could  have  been  more  characteristically  Scotch,  and  no 
one  can  understand  him  and  do  him  justice  without 
imderstanding  and  doing  justice  to  what  there  is  of 
sterling  worth  and  sound  capacity  in  the  noble  type  of 
Scotchmen.  The  blood  of  the  Covenanting  Guthries  ran 
in  his  veins  though  he  coidd  not  produce  docimientary 
proof  of  the  fact,  and  his  consciousness  of  this  was  among 
the  influences  that  had  strengthened  and  elevated  him, 
and  prepared  him  "  to  contend,  and  suffer  if  need  be,  for 
the  rights  of  Christ's  crown  and  the  Uberties  of  His 
Church." 

His  grandmother  was  notably  Scotch.  Fasting  and 
praying  one  whole  day  every  week,  she  showed  that  those 
who  derived  their  faith  from  the  Covenanters  might 
practise  the  religious  exercise  of  fasting  as  well  as  Anglo- 
Cathohcs.  But  she  could  "  set  to  the  mark,"  as  his 
country  neighbours  said  of  Oliver  Cromwell, — she  could 
discern  the  essential  thing  and  do  it, — in  other  matters 
besides  fasting  and  prayer.  One  of  her  sons,  for  example, 
was  pining  for  a  farmer's  daughter  whom  he  was  too 
bashfid  to  ask  in  marriage.  What  could  be  done  ?  She 
"  orders  her  sheepish  lad  to  saddle  a  horse."  He  in  the 
saddle,  she  on  a  pdlion  behind  liim,  "  she  directs  him  to 
ride  straight  to  the  house  of  his  sweetheart ;  and  on 
arri\'ing  there,  before  he,  the  lout,  has  got  the  horse  well 
stabled,  she  has  done  the  work  of  a  plenipotentiary,  and 


GUTHRIE.  207 

got  the  affair  all  settled  with  the  lass  and  her  parents." 
Guthrie's  habit  of  striking  to  the  heart  of  things,  and  nut 
going  about  them  and  about  them  in  irrelevant  gyrations, 
was  quite  in  the  style  of  this  prevailing  parent. 

In  his  father's  house  he  witnessed  perfect  honour  in 
all  transactions,  and  an  unaffectedly  sincere  and  not  un- 
genial  although  constant  and  somewhat  rigorous  exercise 
of  religion.  It  does  not  appear  that  he  passed  through 
any  of  those  mental  struggles  and  agonies  which  have 
frequently  preceded  the  life-long  devotion  of  themselves, 
by  great  preachers  and  missionaries,  to  the  service  of 
Christ ;  but  on  this  point  we  cannot  be  quite  sure,  for 
though  Guthrie  was,  generally  speaking,  as  emotional  and 
communicative  as  a  child,  the  typical  Scot  is  prone  to 
silence  as  to  the  personal  dealuigs  of  his  soul  with  God. 
He  said  of  himself  with  expressive  truthfulness,  that  he 
had  a  "  healthy  constitution,"  and,  so  far  as  is  known, 
this  gradually  developed,  amid  the  kindly  iniluences  of  a 
Christian  household  and  a  Christian  country,  into  a 
healthy  Christian  manhood.  As  a  boy  he  was  frank, 
l)rave,  adventurous,  passionately  fond  of  fighting,  but  with 
as  chivakous  an  absence  of  hatred  or  spite  in  his  combats 
as  ever  a  Bayard  or  a  Coeur  de  Lion.  Neither  at  school 
nor  at  college  did  he  read  much,  and  his  education  con- 
sisted mainly  in  drinking  in  fruni  the  atmosphere,  during 
eight  or  ten  years  of  life  in  Brechin  and  Edinburgh,  the 
ideas  of  his  time. 

One  might  have  expected  him  to  be  smitten  in  those 
years  with  the  metaphysical  enthusiasm  that  haunted 
Scotland's  metropolitan  University;  but,  boy  and  man, 
his  grip  was  alwavs  on  the  concrete,  and  for  abstractions 


208  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

he  had  no  interest  or  care.  So  far  as  he  was  a  student 
at  all,  it  was  science  that  charmed  him ;  and  he  was  so 
fond  of  medical  subjects  and  medical  treatises,  that  he 
would  have  made  no  bad  shift  as  locum  tencns  for  a  general 
practitioner.  If  not  bookish,  he  was  constantly  educat- 
ing himself  by  the  exercise  of  his  observational  and 
receptive  faculties,  and  by  judging  among  the  questions 
of  his  day.  A  massive  sense  of  what  w^as  right  and  true 
and  simple,  as  contrasted  with  wire-drawn  refinements 
and  fantasticalities  and  affectations  and  posturmgs, — a 
mind  decisively  of  the  gravitative,  not  of  the  magnetic 
order, — rendered  him  marvellously  trustworthy  as  an 
adviser  in  practical  emergencies.  Extremely  valuable, 
therefore,  to  all  who  wish  to  ascertam  the  very  truth  in 
the  matter,  are  his  utterances  and  decisions  in  connection 
with  the  Church  conflict. 

As  was  natural  for  a  pious  and  noble-hearted  Scottish 
boy,  he  aspired  to  shine  in  the  pulpit  and  beckon  his 
fellow-men  on  the  way  to  heaven.  He  had  a  profound 
enthusiasm  for  his  profession.  "  As  an  ambassador  for 
Christ,"  he  said,  "  I  regard  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  as 
filling  the  most  responsible  office  any  mortal  can  occupy. 
His  pulpit  is,  in  my  eyes,  loftier  than  a  throne ;  and  of 
all  professions,  learned  or  unlearned,  his,  though  usually 
in  point  of  wealth  the  poorest,  I  esteem  the  most 
lionourable.      That  office  is  one  angels  miglit  covet." 

He  was  early  enlisted  in  the  anti-Moderate  party,  and 
in  a  manner  creditable  to  him  and  little  creditable  to 
Moderatism.  The  son  of  an  infiuential  local  politician, 
he  found  himself,  before  he  had  been  lialf  a  year  in  the 
ministry,  in  a  position  to  decline  or  accept  presentation  to 


GUTHRIE.  209 

one  of  the  best  livings  in  Scotland.  If  he  would  declare 
his  adherence  to  the  Moderate  party,  the  living  was  his. 
Dr.  Nicoll,  of  St.  Andrews,  was  at  the  head  of  the  party, 
and  the  faintest  of  assentient  whispers  in  Dr.  Nicoll's  ear 
would  secure  the  preferment.  Dr.  Nicoll  "  would  ask 
no  questions,"  said  Guthrie's  advisers,  "  nor  attempt  to 
bind  "  hun  by  express  paction.  "  But,"  says  Guthrie, 
"  regarding  the  waiting  on  him  as,  though  a  silent,  a 
distinct  pledge  that  he  and  the  Moderate  party  would 
have  my  vote  in  the  Church  Courts,  I  refused  to  go." 
A  sure  proof  of  constitutional  soundness  of  character ! 
The  case  was  evidently  one  in  which  a  young  man  with 
any  super-sublety  in  him,  any  lurking  selfishness,  any 
sneakish  trick  of  self-deception,  might  have  sophisticated 
himself  into  accepting  the  benefice. 

He  was  from  the  first  an  Evangelical,  but  always  more 
or  less  of  a  free-lance.  Thus,  while  supporting  Chalmers 
in  his  enterprise  of  Church  Extension,  and  always  ready 
for  the  giiadia  ccrtaminis  in  a  platform  tournament  with 
Dr.  Eitchie  and  the  Voluntaries,  he  was  prepared  to  share 
the  benefits  of  Establishment  with  Dissenters  to  an  extent 
which  his  brethren  of  the  State  Church  hardly  approved. 
"  The  Dissenters,"  he  says  in  his  Autobiography,  "  had 
preserved  religion,  and  made  up  for  her  (the  Church's) 
lack  of  service  for  many  years  in  many  parts  of  the 
country ;  and  I  would  have  had  these  services  practically 
acknowledged  by  our  asking  the  Government,  when  we 
sought  the  endowments  for  the  purpose  of  extending 
the  Church,  to  endow  any  and  every  party  who,  though 
seceders  from  the  Church  of  Scotland,  adhered  to  her 
standards."  A  most  generous  idea  !  He  agreed,  however, 
14 


210  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

cordially  with  Chalmers,  that  the  kindling  of  eloquent 
pulpit  torches  at  mtervals  in  great  towns,  to  attract 
butterfly  congregations  from  all  points  of  the  compass,  is  a 
matter  of  small  importance  as  compared  with  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel  to  the  poor  within  limited  parochial  areas, 
where  they  can  be  visited,  one  by  one,  in  then-  own  dwell- 
ings. Many  years  afterwards,  he  avowed  his  conviction 
that  the  excitement  of  the  Voluntary  controversy  had 
led  the  antagonists  on  each  side  to  go  further  in  the  vehe- 
ment assertion  of  their  respective  principles  than  trutli 
required.  In  furious  renunciation  of  State-Churchism, 
the  Dissenting  extremists  would  have  "  landed  the 
country  in  practical  Atheism,"  while  "  we  "  of  the  Estab- 
lishment "  perhaps  erred  as  far  and  as  much,  in  repre- 
senting the  Church  of  Christ  as  dependent  almost  for  its 
very  existence,  certainly  for  its  efficiency,  on  State 
countenance  and  support." 

In  few  men  have  the  nobly  combative  and  the  nobly 
social  or  aggregative  instincts  been  so  illustriously  com- 
bined as  in  Guthrie.  John  Bright  was  equally  combative, 
but  his  inability  to  work  in  harness  made  hmi  a  con- 
spicuous failure  as  a  Cabinet  Minister.  Of  Guthrie's 
combative  propensities  the  annals  of  the  Voluntary  Con- 
tr(wersy  and  the  Disruption  Conflict  are  a  succession  of 
illustrative  pictures ;  but  before  the  Disruption  he  would 
have  magnanunously  offered  the  advantages  of  Establish- 
ment to  any  Presbyterian  willing  to  accept  them,  and,  after 
the  Disruption,  none  welcomed  more  ardently  than  he  the 
signs  of  union,  none  yearned  more  intensely  than  he  for 
the  day  when  the  Eeformed  Church  of  Scotland,  with  its 
three  main  branches,  should  be  again  visibly  one  tree. 


GUTHRIE.  211 

In  point  of  fact,  he  governed  himself  by  broad 
principles  of  sagacity  and  shrewdness,  discerning  when 
union  was  a  hindrance  and  a  folly,  and  when  it  was 
strength  and  beauty.  On  one  occasion  he  illustrated,  from 
his  own  experience,  the  occasional  advantage,  or  indeed 
the  necessity,  of  division.  On  his  glebe  he  had  a  field  of 
corn,  and  he  hii'ed  a  company  of  reapers,  or  "  shearers," 
to  cut  it  for  him.  They  were  Scotch  rustics,  theological 
and  argumentative  beyond  their  class  in  any  land  under 
the  sun.  They  began  to  discuss  the  Voluntary  Contro- 
versy, reaping  -  hook  against  reaping  -  hook,  not  only 
making  it  plain  that  his  corn  would  never  be  reaped, 
but  that  they  were  in  danger  of  actually  plunging  their 
weapons  into  each  other's  breasts.  So  he  insisted 
upon  it  that  the  advocates  of  Establishment  should 
go  to  one  end  of  the  field  and  the  Voluntaries  to 
the  other.  He  once  told  this  incident  on  a  public 
platform  with  such  humour,  that  an  old  man  actually 
rose  and  implored  hhn  to  stop  lest  he  should  die  of 
laughter. 

Loyal  to  Chalmers,  and  doing  yeoman's  service  to  his 
Church  and  party  in  Strathbogie  and  elsewhere,  Guthrie 
nevertheless  thought  that  a  wiser  course  might  have  been 
adopted  than  that  of  passing  the  Veto  Act.  He  believed 
that  the  desire  of  Chalmers  and  Lord  Moncreiff  to  pre- 
serve patronage  led  them  to  take,  fatally,  the  wrong  turn 
in  seeking  to  neutralise  the  evils  of  patronage  by  the 
Veto,  and  to  retain  what  they  considered  its  usefulness 
as  a  buffer  to  popular  election  of  ministers.  He  would 
have  had  them  apply  to  ParUament  for  its  abolition. 
Liberal   in   his  political  sentiments,  trusting  more  than 


212  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Chalmers  in  Democracy,  even  without  the  epithet 
"  Christian "  prefixed  to  it,  he  gloried  in  the  parlia- 
mentary Eeform  Bill,  and  thought  that,  if  he  and  his 
brethren  had  first  made  Scotland  "  from  Cape  Wrath 
to  the  Border "  ring  with  agitation  against  patronage,  and 
had  then  gone  to  the  Legislature  to  have  it  "  utterly 
abolished,"  they  would  have  been  successful.  Who  can 
tell? 

Chalmers,  at  all  events,  took  what  seemed  at  the  time 
to  be  the  safer  as  well  as  the  wiser  and  more  moderate 
course ;  and  with  him  agreed,  not  only  Lord  Moncreiff, 
but  the  law  officers  of  the  Crown.  And  Guthrie 
having  seen  the  Church  put  her  hand  to  the  plough, 
would  not  have  had  her  look  back.  That  she  held 
from  Christ  the  right  to  reform  herself,  and  to  vindicate 
the  spu'itual  liberties  of  her  people,  whether  Parliament 
sanctioned  her  or  not,  he  had  not  a  shadow  of  doubt. 
He  never,  therefore,  advocated  the  repeal  of  the  Veto 
law.  Nor  could  he  fail  to  appreciate  the  beneficence  of 
the  Veto  in  its  practical  working.  It  was  indeed  most 
nicely  fitted,  thus  attesting  the  statesmanlike  genius  of 
Chalmers,  to  exemplify  the  distinctive  Presbyterian  merit 
of  securing  and  wedding  together  diverse  advantages. 
Its  method  was  neither  popular  election  nor  Church 
election,  and  yet  it  was  both.  Very  important  also  is  it 
to  observe  that  the  Veto  was  practically  a  success.  In 
an  overwhehning  majority  of  instances,  it  satisfied  not 
only  the  Church  and  the  parishioners,  but  the  patron. 
Sensible  men,  desirous  to  promote  religion  in  the  exercise 
of  their  Church  patronage,  did  not  consider  that  their 
rights  were  confiscated  although  one  presentee  was  vetoed 


GUTHRIE.  213 

by  the  people,  since  they  were  themselves  empowered 
to  present  another.  It  was,  no  doubt,  natural  for  pre- 
sentees to  clmg  to  what,  for  them,  was  real  property, 
if  they  believed  that  they  had  a  legal  title  to  it ;  but 
they  could  have  entered  on  their  incumbencies  only  as 
intruded  by  sheer  force  on  the  congregations ;  and  they 
might  be  expected  to  know  that,  from  the  earliest  times 
of  the  Eeformed  Church  in  Scotland,  intrusion  had  been 
against  her  genius  and  traditions. 

While  voting,  therefore,  with  Cunningham  against 
patronage,  Guthrie  went  step  for  step  with  Chalmers 
and  the  general  Evangelical  phalanx,  as  Cunningham  also 
did,  in  maintaining  the  Veto.  Like  Dr.  Buchanan,  he 
believed  that  the  tap-root  of  the  Church's  trouble  lay 
in  the  professional  jealousy  or  perversity  of  lawyers. 
He  was  convinced  that,  as  a  general  fact,  "  lawyers  have 
always  shown  a  strong  bias  to  curtail  the  liberties  of 
the  Church  of  Christ,  and,  with  legal  bonds,  to  bind  her 
neck  and  heel  to  the  State."  Like  Dr.  Buchanan,  he 
signalised  Dean  of  Faculty  Hope  as  the  man  who,  more 
than  any  other,  by  his  machinations  and  manipulations  in 
Edinburgh, — where  the  trimming,  compromising  "middle- 
man," Dr.  Muir,  played  clay  to  the  Dean's  potter, — and 
by  his  earwiggings  of  Premiers  and  Cabinet  Mmisters 
in  London,  brought  about  the  catastrophe.  The  high 
powers  "  sitting  away  in  London  knew  little  or  nothing 
of  Presbyterianism ;  ignorant  almost  to  an  incredible 
degree,  as  Episcopalians  in  England  are,  of  the  characters 
and  constitutions  of  other  Churches  than  their  own.  In 
a  quarrel  between  the  Civil  Courts,  which  were  their 
creatures,  and  the  Church  of  Christ,  that  claimed  inde- 


214  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

pendence  for  herself, — owning  no  other  authority  but 
that  of  Christ,  and  no  statute-book  but  the  word  of  God, 
— naturally,  the  Houses  of  Parliament  decided  against  us, 
and  in  favour  of  the  Civil  Courts :  the  contest  being  one 
whose  merits  they  did  not  comprehend,  and,  familiar 
as  they  were  with  the  slavish  subjection  of  the  Church  of 
England  to  the  State,  did  not  seem  able  to  comprehend." 
Thus  did  Guthrie,  great  in  common  sense,  advocate 
the  cause  of  the  Church  without  bitterness  but  without 
compromise,  —  without  shilly-shallying,  saccharine  com- 
plaisance, or  maudlin  mixing  up  of  essentials  and  non- 
essentials. Baptised  into  the  science  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  he  held  no  principle  superstitiously,  and  was 
not  fanatical  in  his  State  Churchism.  He  saw  that,  in 
subjection  to  the  Court  of  Session,  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land would  have  been  reduced  to  a  far  more  pitiful 
officialism  even  than  that  of  the  parHamentary  Church  of 
England.  In  Hooker  himself  he  might  have  found 
recognition  of  the  x\sA\\,  of  the  Church  to  live  and  to 
grow,  and  this  forms  an  adequate  logical  basis  for  the 
contention  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  "  All  things 
natural,"  says  Hooker,  "  have  in  them  naturally  more  or 
less  the  power  of  providing  for  their  own  safety ;  and  as 
each  particular  man  hath  this  power,  so  every  politic 
society  of  men  must  needs  have  the  same,  that  thereby 
the  whole  may  provide  for  the  good  of  all  parts  therein. 
For  other  benefit  we  have  not  ])y  sorting  ourselves  into 
politic  societies,  saving  only  that  by  this  mean  each  part 
hath  that  relief  which  the  virtue  of  the  whole  is  able  to 
yield  it.  The  Church,  therefore,  being  a  politic  society 
or  body,  cannot  possibly  want  the  power  of  providing  for 


GUTHRIE.  215 

itself ;  and  the  chiefest  part  of  that  power  consisteth  in 
the  authority  of  making  laws."  ^ 

The  Church  of  Hooker  has  from  first  to  last  been  the 
Church  of  aristocrats.  One  of  the  express  grounds  on 
which  he  pleads  her  claims  is  that  she  makes  religion 
acceptable  to  the  rulers  of  this  world,  the  mighty  men 
of  wealth  and  title.  Yet  he  asserts  her  authority 
to  make  laws.  The  Church  of  Scotland,  as  Guthrie 
saw  her  in  the  past,  had  been  a  Church  of  the  people ; 
the  Veto  law  was  made  by  her  for  the  restoration  and 
safeguarding  of  the  sacred  rights  of  the  people ;  and  he 
would  rather  have  gone  to  prison  or  to  death  than  beheld 
the  Veto  rescinded,  the  call  reduced  avowedly  to  a 
mockery,  and  Christ's  crown  and  covenant  confessed  to  be 
no  more  than  theatrical  properties,  or  mere  rhetorical 
phrases,  with  which  turbulent,  ignorant,  and  vulgar 
preachers  had  set  off  their  ecclesiastical  histrionism. 

^  Hooker,  Book  vii.  chap.  xiv. 


CHAPTEE  XXVII. 
Can^fis^  in  ^^ocifs  an^  (Qxxic^ean^B. 

"TTTE  have  been  viewing  the  conflict  mainly  in  the 
'  '  Assembly ;  but  all  Scotland  was  now  a  battle- 
field between  the  parties.  And  the  man  who  was 
signalled  out  by  the  popular  instinct  as  the  Achilles  of 
the  fray  was  Candlish.  Cunningham  was  more  learned, 
Guthrie  more  pictorial  and  emotional,  but  no  one  seemed 
to  appreciate  with  svich  piercing  lucency  as  Candlish  the 
interlacing  of  the  people's  cause  with  the  Church's  cause, 
the  specialty  of  an  Established  Churcli  guarding  with  the 
spiritual  sword  of  Christ's  Kingship  the  liberties  of  rustic 
parishioners. 

Much  of  the  enthusiixsm  with  which  he  was  regarded 
arose,  we  cannot  doubt,  from  the  fact  of  his  glance 
being  on  the  future.  At  a  great  public  meetmg,  held 
in  one  of  the  largest  churches  in  Edinburgh,  in  the 
August  of  1841,  when  the  Erastian  schism  of  Strath- 
bogie  had  fairly  begun,  he  boldly  contemplated,  while 
earnestly  deprecating,  Disestablishment.  He  still  hoped 
that  the  rulers  of  the  nation  would  not  commit  "  the 
great  sin   of  which   they  would  be  guilty  if  they  thrust 


CANDLISH  IN  SHOALS  AND  QUICKSANDS.         217 

out  of  the  Establishment  those  who  had  committed 
no  crime,  unless  it  be  a  crune  to  sustain  the  honour  of 
the  great  King  and  Head  of  the  Church."  But,  if  the 
worst  came  to  the  worst,  if  the  inexorable  alternative 
were  an  Erastian  Establishment  or  none,  he  would 
relinquish  Establishment  and  face  Disruption.  "  I  am 
not  a  worshipper  of  the  principle  of  an  Establishment." 
He  repels  the  base  idea  that  Establishment  alone  can 
lend  cohesiveness  to  the  Church,  or  prevent  it  from 
splitting  up  into  sects.  "  As  if  that  which  united  us 
together  were  our  stipends,  our  manses,  and  our  glebes  ! " 
He  will  not  so  "  dishonour  the  Church  of  Christ,  which  in 
the  beginning  had  no  countenance  from  the  State,  and 
which  needs  none,  and  which  can  go  on  against  the 
State."  Valuing  the  principle  of  Establishment  when, 
as  in  the  history  and  constitution  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, the  freedom  of  the  Church  was  deemed  to  be 
inviolable,  he  positively  disapproved  of,  and  was  pre- 
pared to  denounce,  a  Church  enslaved  by  the  State. 
"  I  hold  an  Erastian  Establishment  to  be  worse  than 
none  at  all."  "  It  is  our  bounden  duty  to  bear  this 
testimony,  that  the  Church  ought  to  be  established 
on  the  principles  which  we  are  contending  for,  or 
that  there  should  be  no  Establishment  in  the  land 
at  all." 

A  memorable  saying.  Perhaps  if  Candlish  were  still 
on  earth,  and  surveyed  the  history  of  the  Established 
Church  and  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  in  the 
light  of  fifty  years,  he  might  recall  it,  and  express 
satisfaction  at  his  not  having  addressed  himself,  as  he 
certainly  did  not,  in  the  years   of  his  activity  as  a  Free 


218  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Church  minister,  to  the  subversion  of  the  Establish- 
ment. The  vision  that  rose  before  him,  when  he  spoke 
those  words,  was  that  of  a  Church  of  Scotland  completely 
Erastianised, — reduced  to  an  official  machinery  for  en- 
abling the  Court  of  Session  to  thrust  pastors  upon 
unwilling  parishes.  It  was  not  possible  that  he  should 
realise  that  one  part  of  the  effect  of  the  heroic  exertions 
of  himself  and  his  associates  was  to  be  the  sweeping 
away  of  all  restrictions  on  the  will  of  the  people  in 
choosing  their  own  ministers  in  the  Scottish  Establishment, 
and  that  this  was  to  be  accompanied  by  ostentatious 
obsequiousness  towards  the  Church  by  the  conciliated 
Court  of  Session.  We  may,  however,  be  quite  sure  that, 
with  whatever  comment  on  his  origmal  saying  Candlish 
might  have  contemplated  the  result,  he  would  not  have 
regretted  the  stand  he  made  for  the  principle  of  Christ's 
Headship  over  the  Church,  or  his  impassioned  ardour  in 
affirming  that  this  principle  is  bound  up  with  tlie  rights  of 
the  Christian  people.  Equally  confident  may  we  be  in 
affirming  that  he  would  not  have  been  conscientiously 
content  with  spiritual  independence  by  mere  sufferance 
of  the  Court  of  Session,  out  of  regard,  not  for  the  Church, 
but  the  Establishment. 

As  a  platform  speaker,  Candlish  probably  never  was 
surpassed  for  the  precision  and  lucidity  with  which  he 
distinguished  between  things  constantly  mixed  up  by 
confused  and  stupid  persons.  To  the  vague  charge  of 
refusing  to  let  the  Court  of  Session  draw  the  line 
between  things  civil  and  things  spiritual,  he  replies,  "  Do 
we  ask  them  to  take  our  definition  of  what  is  civil  ? 
Do  we  say,  as  the  Church  of  Rome  says,  AVe  pronounce 


CANDLISH  IN  SHOALS  AND  QUICKSANDS.        219 

a  case  of  murder  by  an  ecclesiastical  person  to  be  a 
spiritual  matter,  and  we  prohibit  you  from  meddling  with 
it  ?  Do  we  exempt  our  persons  or  properties  from  their 
jurisdiction  ?  No,  we  allow  them  the  same  liberty  which 
we  claim  for  ourselves.  We  do  not  presume  to  prescribe 
to  them  what  is  the  law,  or  to  describe  what  is  civil ; 
neither  do  we  allow  them  to  prescribe  to  us,  and  decide 
what  is  ecclesiastical."  If  the  Civil  Court  gave  force  to 
its  sentences  in  temporal  effects,  in  assigning  stipends, 
glebes,  and  church  buildings,  and  if  the  Church  were 
allowed  to  give  force  to  her  sentences  in  spiritual  effects, 
deciding  who  should  minister  in  the  word  and  the 
sacraments,  who  should  ordain  and  be  ordained,  there 
would  be  no  collision.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Court 
of  Session,  directly  or  indirectly,  commanded  Presby- 
teries to  ordain  ministers,  although  the  Church  had 
commanded  them  not  to  do  so,  then  the  Court  of 
Session  was  taking  the  place  of  the  Church,  and  the 
Presbyteries  obeying  it  and  defying  the  Church  were 
rebellious.  If  the  Legislature  sanctioned  the  Court 
of  Session,  then  an  Erastian  schism  would  obviously 
proceed  within  the  Church,  and,  in  order  to  preserve 
her  Divine  life  and  liberty,  she  would  be  compelled 
to  relinquish  Establishment.  Candlish's  speeches  wrote 
these  distinctions  in  lightning  for  the  pious  intelligence 
of  Scotland. 

The  spectacle  of  conflict  in  the  headquarters  of  Pres- 
byterianism  attracted  attention  throughout  the  whole 
Christian  world,  and  was  viewed  with  keenest  interest 
by  the  Presbyterian  community  in  Great  Britain  and 
America.     Among  the  champions  of  the  Church,  Candlish 


220  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

was  recognised  as  the  most  conspicuous.  Princeton 
College,  New  Jersey^  unanimously  conferred  upon  him 
the  title  of  Doctor  in  Divinity.  Intimation  of  the 
honour  was  made  to  hiin  in  a  letter  couched  in  terms 
of  warmest  admiration.  The  Church  of  Scotland  is 
in  it  named  with  enthusiasm  as  "  our  mother  Church," 
and  glowuig  sympathy  is  professed  with  her  in  her 
contending.  "  Our  whole  Church,"  says  the  writer,  "  is 
awake  to  the  importance  of  your  conflict;  nor  do  I 
know  of  a  minister,  elder,  or  layman  in  the  length  and 
hreadth  of  this  land  who  does  not  entirely  sympathise 
with  you  and  the  beloved  brethren  who  are  so  ready  to 
!  hazard  all,  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  may  rule  as  King 
in  His  own  Church."  "  With  one  voice  your  Moderate 
Erastian  j)arty,  led  on  by  Dr.  Cook,  are  condemned  as 
the  betrayers  of  Samson,  and  as  delivering  him  over  to 
the  Philistines.  If  the  unanimous  approval  of  our  whole 
Church  can  cheer  you  to  continue  the  conflict,  let  what- 
ever consequences  ensue,  be  assured  that  you  and  your 
brethren  have  it."  "  Your  name  is  as  familiar  to  us  as 
if  you  resided  among  us,  and  were  a  pastor  of  one  of  our 
churches." 

Such  sympathy  was  much  required  by  Dr.  CandKsh  at 
that  point  of  time,  for  he  was  involved  in  what  were  for 
him  the  most  painful  and  trying  experiences  of  the 
entire  conflict.  Spread  over  many  months,  fatiguing  for 
the  student  who  now  seeks  to  master  them,  and  inexpress- 
ibly tantalising  and  irritating  for  those  who  were  then 
tossed  hither  and  thither  in  their  distracting  whirl  of 
hopes  and  fears,  an  interminable  interchange  of  negotia- 
tions   took    place.       The    very    least    that    the    Church 


CANDLISH  IN  SHOALS  AND  QUICKSANDS.        221 

could  conscientiously  accept  from  tlie  State  was  non- 
intrusion in  parishes,  and  unchallenged  liberty  to  exercise 
her  own  spiritual  jurisdiction.  Statesmen,  in  the  outset 
at  least  of  the  discussion,  may  be  credited  with  a  wish 
to  preserve  the  Church  as  an  Establishment,  and 
with  a  sincere  purpose  to  deprive  her  of  no  power 
or  authority  which  she  had  previously  enjoyed.  As 
Chalmers  and  the  eminent  lawyers  who  acted  with  him 
in  the  Church,  and  the  Law  Officers  of  the  Crown  whom 
these  consulted,  had  at  first  believed  the  Veto  Act  to 
be  within  the  legal  competence  of  the  Church ;  so  it 
had,  as  we  know,  been  loyally  accepted  by  the  British 
Government,  and  given  effect  to,  year  after  year,  in  the 
settlement  of  ministers.  When  the  difficulty  occurred, 
well-meaning  politicians  concluded  that  the  dissension 
arose  out  of  a  mere  misunderetanding,  and  the  Earl 
of  Aberdeen,  Su-  George  Sinclair,  and  other  more 
or  less  competent  persons,  came  forward  to  solve  the 
problem. 

With  Candlish  it  was  "  the  very  stuff  of  the  con- 
science" that  there  should  be  no  settlement  of  a  minister 
without  the  consent  of  the  people  ;  and  consent,  he  mam- 
tained,  was  a  matter  simply  of  will.  To  this  Lord 
Aberdeen  seems  really  to  have  believed  himself  prepared 
to  yield  a  substantial  agreement.  But  he  insisted  that 
the  parishioners  should  be  required  to  make  a  statement 
of  their  reasons  for  exercising  their  veto ;  and  it  proved 
to  be  impossible  for  him  to  define  in  a  satisfactory 
manner  the  way  in  which  they  were  to  state  those 
reasons.  Since  Cromwell's  Parliament  spent  three 
months  in   the  vain  attempt  to  define  an  incimibrance, 


222      THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

it  has  been  familiarly  known  how  difficult  it  is  for  men 
to  agree  in  the  chiselling  of  phrases,  and  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  lights  and  shades  of  meaning.  For  a  long  time 
Dr.  Candiish  applied  all  the  powers  of  his  keenly  ana- 
lytical mind  to  the  production  of  such  a  measure  as  might, 
without  the  express  abolition  of  patronage,  exclude  the 
possibility  of  intrusion.  Chafing  and  fretting,  he  still 
resolutely  endeavoured  to  make  his  way  through  the 
"  shoals  and  quicksands  of  doubtful  negotiations,  depend- 
ing on  doubtful  constructions  and  interpretations  of 
doubtful  clauses."  But  he  bitterly  felt  the  worry  and 
the  precariousness  of  such  work.  Never  had  he  been 
so  painfully  exercised.  What  was  mere  matter  of 
expediency  with  statesmen,  was  the  life  of  his  soul  for 
him.  "  If  we  should  consent  to,  or  act  under,  such  a 
measure,"  he  cried,  "  which  should  come  short  by  a  hair's- 
breadth  of  a  full  non-intrusion  measure,  we  should  tempt 
Providence — we  should  offend  God." 

Impatient  in  proportion  to  the  clearness  and  quick- 
ness of  his  intellectual  glance,  and  of  fiery  temper  though 
his  heart  was  a  well  of  tenderness,  Candiish  did  at  one 
moment  almost,  or  altogether,  lose  his  self-command  in 
connection  with  the  Lord  Aberdeen  "  negotiations."  It 
was  at  that  crisis  when,  one  impracticable  solution  after 
another  having  been  tried,  he  had  schooled  himself  to 
fronting  all  danger  rather  than  recommence  the  windy 
war.  Just  at  that  moment  he  was  startled  by  a  new 
movement,  initiated  by  a  small  but  smooth-tongued  and 
busy  section  in  the  Church,  for  beginning  once  more  the 
dreary  round  of  disputation.  He  gave  way,  and  uttered 
his  mind.     "  I  have  no  doubt,"  he  said,  "  that  it  will  all 


C AND  LIS H  IN  SHOALS  AND  QUICKSANDS.        223 

turn  out  to  be,  if  not  a  trick,  at  least  an  entire  mis- 
understanding ;  a  new  edition  of  the  old  game  at  cross 
purposes.  .  .  .  But  I  must  keep  my  temper.  .  .  ." 
When  a  man  comes  to  this  point,  he  has  evidently  no 
longer  his  temper  to  keep. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
feorb  (^efBourne  again^ 

A  ND  if  the  prospect  was  thus  clouded  in  the  matter 
-^-^  of  non-intrusion,  was  it  not  still  darker  in  respect 
of  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  ?  Was  it  not 
too  clear  that  the  principle  of  the  Headship  of  Christ, 
for  which  he  was  prepared  to  shed  his  blood,  was  in  the 
eyes  of  statesmen  little  more  than  a  jest  ?  We  saw  how 
little  deference  to  this  sacred  principle  w^as  displayed  by 
Lord  Melbourne  at  an  earlier  stage  in  the  conflict.  On 
a  later  occasion,  his  Lordship  was,  by  his  own  express 
appointment,  waited  upon  on  the  subject  by  a  deputation 
from  Edinburgh.  His  demeanour  was  so  rudely  frivolous, 
that  we  can  explain  it  only  by  supposing  him  to  have 
been  annoyed  by  the  conduct  of  an  Evangelical  leader 
at  a  recent  Perthshire  election,  and  to  have  resolved  tci 
indemnify  himself  by  making  fun  of  the  deputation. 

"  Who  are  you  ? "  he  began,  "  and  whence  do  you 
come  ? "  Keminded  that  they  had  been  honoured  by 
his  own  offer  of  an  interview,  he  consented  to  hear  a 
few  words  about  the  object  of  their  visit.  "  The  law  is 
against  you,"  was  his  prompt  reply. 


LORD  MELBOURNE  AGALN.  225 

They  ventured  to  recall  to  him  that  the  Court  of 
Queen's  Bench  was  actually  m  collision  as  to  a  point  of 
law  with  the  House  of  Commons  at  the  time. 

"  Yes,  I  see,"  said  his  Lordship,  "  the  cases  are 
similar, — questions  of  jurisdiction." 

"  It  would  really  appear,"  he  went  on,  "  as  if  all  re- 
ligious bodies  now-a-days  were  determined  to  be  above 
the  law.  Why,  there  is  Dr.  M'Hale  in  Ireland.  We 
made  a  law,  saying,  '  You  shan't  call  yourself  Archbishop 
of  Tuam.'  '  But  I  shall,  though,'  he  replies ;  '  you  had 
no  right  to  make  such  a  law.'  And  there  is  the 
Bishop  of  Exeter.  We  brought  in  a  Church  Discipline 
Bill  into  the  House  of  Lords, — and  immediately  the 
Bishop  starts  up  and  tells  us,  '  You  are  interfering  with 
the  Divine  rights  of  the  episcopal  office,  —  you  are 
presuming  to  legislate  on  matters  above  the  reach  of 
Parliament,  and  if  you  do  I  won't  obey  your  law.' 
And  now  here  comes  your  Church  of  Scotland.  You 
stand  upon  your  spiritual  jurisdiction,  and  wont  allow 
civil  authority  to  touch  it.     Eh  !  isn't  that  it — Eh  ?  " 

And  Dr.  Buchanan,  who  was  present,  tells  us  that  his 
Lordship  laughed  heartily  at  his  own  joke. 

It  was  indeed  a  joke  to  Lord  Melbourne.  Spiritual 
jurisdiction  is  either  a  jest,  or  a  Popish  assumption,  or 
an  enigma,  for  a  multitude  of  persons.  But  in  the  sense 
of  Church  government  by  Christ's  officers  and  Clirist's 
law,  it  is  the  natural,  obvious,  and  scriptural  principle 
of  unity  for  the  Church  Universal.  It  has  been  the 
glory  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  unfold  this  banner 
of  Christian  unity.  It  is  broad  enough,  when  its  folds 
are  spread  wide  l)y  the  winds  of  God,  to  embrace  all 
15 


226  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

National  Churches,  all  forms  of  ecclesiastical  administra- 
tion, in  so  far  as  these  are  subservient  to  the  enforce- 
ment and  dissemination  of  Christ's  principles,  TJhi 
homines  sunt  modi  sunt ;  wherever  men  congregate,  there 
will  be  varieties  of  religious  methods  and  institutions ; 
and  each  and  all  of  these,  in  so  far  as  they  can  be 
breathed  into  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  in  so  far  as  they 
guard  and  develop  the  life  of  the  Christian  organism, 
admit  of  being  comprehended  in  the  true  catholicity  of 
the  Christ  -  governed  kingdom  of  God.  Between  the 
scoffing,  laughing  Melbourne  and  the  fervent  Candlish, 
there  could  on  this  subject  be  no  true  harmony,  no 
secure  arrangement.  And  though  Sir  Eobert  Peel  might 
be  grave  where  Lord  Melbourne  w^as  gay,  they  were  in 
substantials  at  one  on  the  matter. 

Never,  perhaps,  has  the  office  of  the  Civil  Magistrate 
been  more  intelligently  magnified,  than  was  done  by 
Candlish  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the  heat  of  this  con- 
flict. "  In  a  well  -  ordered  Church  Establishment,"  he 
said,  "  we  hold  the  independence  of  the  Civil  Magistrate 
as  strongly  as  we  hold  the  independence  of  the  Church ; 
and  the  independence  of  the  Civil  Magistrate  in  all  he 
is  entitled  to  do  circa  sacra,  as  well  as  the  independence 
of  the  Church  in  all  she  is  entitled  to  do  in  sacris.  It 
is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  understand  this.  The 
Church  is  not  entitled  to  control  or  to  resist  him  in  the 
exercise  of  his  duty.  He  is  equally  independent  in  all 
he  does  circa  sacra,  as  the  Church  is  independent  in  all 
she  does  in  sacris.  We  hold  that  the  Civil  Magistrate 
is  not  only  entitled  generally  to  control  all  temporal 
matters,  but  that  he   has  certain   duties   to  discharge  in 


LORD  MELBOURNE  AGALN.  227 

reference  to  things  spiritual ;  and  we  hold  him  to  be 
entirely  independent  of  the  Church,  both  in  his  general 
control  of  civil  matters  and  in  all  questions  he  has  to 
determine  and  settle  circa  sacra.  For  example,  we  are 
not  entitled  to  compel  the  Magistrate  to  establish  a 
Church  accordhig  to  our  views ;  it  rests  with  the  Magis- 
trate to  say  whether  he  will  establish  the  Church  or  not, 
and  on  what  terms  he  will  establish  and  endow  it.  In 
all  he  does  to  protect  and  favour  the  Church,  he  acts 
independently  and  on  his  own  responsibility.  In  all 
his  dealings  with  the  Church  he  is  not  bound  to  take 
the  will  of  the  Church  as  his  guide ;  he  is  bound  to 
take  the  word  of  God  in  his  hand  and  to  act  on  his 
own  responsibility  to  God  alone.  But  then  he  is  not 
entitled  to  assume  the  power  of  the  keys ;  he  is  not 
entitled  to  set  himself  up  in  the  Church  as  its  governor. 
The  Magistrate  may  only  dispose  of  the  temporalities 
which  the  Church  enjoys,  and  do  what  he  thinks  tit  in 
regard  to  all  that  he  has  himself  given  to  the  Church  ; 
that  is  an  exercise  of  jurisdiction  competent  to  him, 
which  we  may  not  resist." 

Could  the  clearest-headed  jurist  that  ever  wrote  upon 
the  principles  of  universal  law  have  treated  the  subject 
more  temperately  or  more  wisely  ? 

From  the  officious  busybodies  who  hurried  uselessly 
forward  with  their  nostrums, — their  exquisitely  poised 
phrases,  by  which  non-intrusion  of  pastors  was  to  be 
combined  with  non  -  exclusion  of  patrons,  and  harness 
provided  wherein  the  Court  of  Session  and  the  Courts  of 
the  Church  could  pull  together, — Dr.  Candlish  pointedly 
excepted  the  father  and    son   of    the  House  of  Argyll. 


228  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

The  Church,  he  acknowledged,  lay  under  a  debt  of  obliga- 
tion to  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  and  not  to  the  Duke  alone, 
but  to  "  a  scion  of  that  House,  who,  yet  scarcely  at  the 
years  of  maturity,  has  put  forth  one  of  the  best  vindica- 
tions of  the  Church  in  our  day."  This  last  allusion  is  to 
a  nobleman  who,  in  the  serene  and  golden  evenmg  of  an 
illustrious  career,  still  survives,  an  object  of  proud  and 
affectionate  trust  to  all  parties  among  his  countrymen, 
to  lend  his  counsel  and  guidance  to  the  three  branches 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  His  illustrious  father  auned 
at  inducmg  the  House  of  Lords  to  accept,  m  substance, 
the  unimprovable  Veto  Act.  This  was  the  best  of  all 
the  suggested  plans ;  but  even  this  was  hopeless. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 
t^e  Cfatm  of  (Rtg^f0. 

"IT7HEN  the  time  came  for  the  Assembly  of  1842, 
^  '  the  majority  felt  that  the  issue  of  the  struggle 
could  not  now  be  long  deferred.  The  Moderates,  under 
the  cautious  and  skilful  guidance  of  Dr.  Cook  and 
the  hooded  Dean,  were  in  a  state  of  schismatic  revolt 
within  the  pale  of  the  Establishment.  The  simplicity 
of  the  Veto  Law,  and  its  unassailable  righteousness  in 
safeguarding  the  spiritual  interests,  and  those  only,  of 
parishioners,  had  not  availed  the  Church.  The  attempts 
to  improve  upon  the  Veto  by  the  ingenuity  of  fussy 
phrase-makers  had  proved  futile,  and  the  Court  of  Session 
continued,  like  a  great  boa-constrictor,  to  throw  fold  after 
fold  of  its  strangling  apparatus  over  the  body  of  the 
Church.  Under  these  circumstances  the  view  was  more 
and  more  passionately  held  by  Cunningham,  that  peace 
could  never  be  permanently  secured  until  patronage,  by 
means  of  which  the  Court  of  Session  might  always  contrive 
to  entangle  the  Churcli,  was  abolished.  Candlisli  and 
Guthrie  concurred  with  him,  and  Chalmers  at  length  threw 
the  whole  force  of  his  influence  into  the  movement  of 

2:29 


230  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Cunningham.  In  the  Assembly  of  1841,  Cunnmgham 
was,  we  saw,  defeated  by  three  votes ;  in  the  Assembly 
of  1842  he  carried  his  point  by  a  majority  of  sixty- 
nine. 

At  first  glance  this  course  might  seem  to  evince 
new  and  fierce  aggressiveness  on  the  part  of  the 
Eeformers.  But  this  was  far  from  being  the  intention 
of  Chalmers,  Candlish,  or  Cunningham.  The  refusal  of 
the  State  to  repeal  the  Patronage  Act,  on  being  directly 
petitioned  to  do  so,  would  let  the  Church  know  how 
she  stood.  Patronage,  if  irremovable,  might  be  checked 
and  qualified,  as  it  had  once  before  been  in  the  history 
of  the  Church,  without  sacrificing  the  rights  of  the 
people  or  compromising  the  spiritual  jurisdiction,  which 
the  Church  of  Session  was  now  trampling  into  the  dust. 
It  seemed  right  and  proper,  under  these  circumstances, 
that  the  Government  should  be  made  aware,  by  a  distinct 
expression  of  the  conviction  of  the  majority  of  the 
Assembly,  that  no  effectual,  permanent,  and  harmonious 
arrangement  could,  in  their  opinion,  be  made  without 
repeal  of  that  fount  and  origin  of  the  Church's  woes,  the 
Patronage  Act. 

But  the  petition  against  patronage  was  a  thing 
separate  and  apart  from  the  general  scheme  or  proposal 
for  a  settlement,  which,  under  the  title  of  Claim  of 
Eights,  the  Church,  at  this  Assembly,  decided  to  present 
to  the  Government.  This  celebrated  document,  the 
most  authoritative  of  all  in  respect  to  the  origin  of  the 
Free  Church,  had  been  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Alexander 
Murray  Dunlop.  He  has  already  been  named  in  this 
narrative,  and  in  the  roll  of  Disruption  worthies  none 


THE  CLAIM  OF  RIGHTS.  231 

holds  a  more  tenderly  cherished,  a  more  affectionately 
honoured  place  than  his.  Macaulay  says  of  Chatham, 
that  "  he  loved  England  as  an  Athenian  loved  the  City 
of  the  Violet  Crown,  as  a  Koman  loved  the  City  of 
the  Seven  Hills ; "  and  with  like  fervour  did  Dunlop 
love  the  Church  of  his  fathers.  "  The  eldership  of  the 
Church  in  Edinburgh  and  its  immediate  neighbourhood," 
says  Guthrie,  "  who  supported  the  Evangelical  or  Non- 
intrusion party,  was  not  less  remarkable  at  that  tune  than 
the  Evangelical  party  among  the  clergy.  At  their  head, 
facile  princeps,  was  Alexander  Dunlop.  He  was  my  most 
intimate  friend.  I  loved  him  as  a  brother,  and  esteemed 
him  almost  above  all  men.  He  was  so  disinterested,  so 
unselfish,  so  tender  -  hearted ;  a  man  of  such  delicate 
honour,  so  incapable  by  nature  as  well  as  grace  of  any- 
thing low  or  mean,  and  withal  a  devout,  humble  Christian  ! 
He  had  a  grand  head  and  a  large  heart,  and  wanted  but 
a  voice  to  have  swayed  popular  assemblies  at  his  will. 
He  sacrificed  his  interests  at  the  Bar,  his  prospects  of  a 
seat  on  the  Bench,  and  many  things  else,  to  his  attach- 
ment to  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland." 

Dunlop  had  been  in  the  conflict  from  its  beginnings, 
and  all  its  particulars  were  imprinted  in  luminous  order 
upon  his  memory.  Never  in  the  history  of  human 
character  has  there  been  record  of  a  mind  in  which  the 
innocent  guilelessness,  the  simple  transparency,  of  a  child 
has  been  so  signally  combined  with  the  acuteness  and 
the  discernment  of  a  consummate  lawyer.  In  stating 
the  grievances  of  the  Church, — in  pointing  out  how  her 
spiritual  activities  had   been  impeded,  her  power  to  de- 


232  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

limit  her  own  membership  overborne,  her  profomidest 
principles  put  aside  as  histrionic  phrases  or  egregious 
usurpations, — he  uttered  nothmg  but  what  was  simply 
true  and  entirely  unanswerable. 

Dr.  Buchanan,  who  prints  the  Claim  of  Eights  in  his 
Appendix,  thus  justly  describes  it :  "  Its  style  grave  and 
perspicuous, — its  tone  calm  and  solemn, — its  facts  well 
chosen,  accurately  stated,  and  lucidly  arranged,  —  its 
argument  direct  and  powerful, — its  conclusion  clear  and 
resolute, — it  must  ever  be  regarded,  by  all  intelligent 
and  candid  readers,  as  every  way  worthy  of  the  great 
occasion  on  wdiich  it  was  to  be  employed,  and  of  the  re- 
markable event  with  which  it  is  destined  to  be  inseparably 
associated  in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  Scotland." 

It  opens  with  a  declaration  that  the  Lords  of  Session, 
who  ought  to  have  protected  the  Church  in  the  enjoyment 
of  her  constitutional  liberties,  had  become  her  assailants, 
and  proceeds  to  prove  in  detail  that  they  have  invaded 
her  jurisdiction,  subverted  her  government,  coerced  her 
Courts  in  the  exercise  of  their  purely  spiritual  functions, 
ordination  to  the  office  of  the  ministry,  Church  censures, 
the  preaching  of  the  word,  and  the  administration  of  the 
sacraments.  It  concludes  with  a  solemn  appeal  to  "  the 
Christian  people  of  this  kingdom,  and  all  the  Churches  of 
the  Eeformation  throughout  the  world  who  hold  the  great 
doctrine  of  the  sole  Headship  of  the  Lord  Jesus  over  His 
Church,  to  witness  that  it  is  for  their  adherence  to  that 
doctrine,  as  set  forth  in  the  Confession  of  Faith  and 
ratified  by  the  laws  of  the  kingdom,  and  for  the  main- 
tenance by  them  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  office-bearers, 
and  the  freedom  and  privileges  of  the  members,  of  the 


THE  CLAIM  OF  RIGHTS.  233 

Church,  from  that  doctrme  flowing,  that  tliis  Church  is 
subjected  to  hardship,  and  that  the  rights  so  sacredly 
pledged  and  secured  to  her  are  put  in  peril." 

Mr.  Dunlop,  it  has  been  said,  was  the  author  of  the  Claim 
of  Eights.  But,  in  drawing  it  up,  he  had  been  in  close 
correspondence  with  Clialmers,  who  at  this  crisis  towered 
into  a  pre-eminence  worthy  of  hhnself.  Never  had  he 
been  raised,  by  the  united  force  of  genius,  religion,  and 
patriotism,  to  a  serener  or  more  intense  exaltation  of 
spirit.  Dr.  Gordon,  glowing  with  sympathetic  ardour  as 
he  thought  of  him,  wrote :  "  Let  us  follow  the  course 
so  plainly  and  powerfully  laid  out  for  us  by  our  vener- 
able and  beloved  father.  I  trust  that  his  setting 
sun  will  exhibit  hun  to  Christendom  in  a  brighter 
blaze  than  in  all  his  other  works, — leading  his  brethren 
in  one  of  the  noblest  testimonies  that  have  ever 
been  borne  to  the  glorious  Headship  of  our  adorable 
Eedeemer." 

It  was  through  the  influence  of  Chalmers,  or  mainly 
so,  that  the  subject  of  patronage  was  kept  apart  from, 
and  in  fact  all  but  directly  and  by  implication  out  of, 
the  Claim  of  Eights.  He  shared,  no  doubt,  in  the  dis- 
like to  patronage.  He  voted  with  Cunningham  for  the 
petition  against  it.  But  he  held  that,  as  compared  with 
the  sacred  principle  of  Christ's  immediate  rule  in  His 
Church,  anti-patronage  was  a  Scottish  peculiarity.  The 
central  truth  of  the  Headsliip  was  common  to  "  the 
whole  of  Eeformed  Christendom,"  being  an  assertion  of 
"  the  great  generic  and  comprehensive  privilege  which  is 
inherent  with  every  true  Church  of  deciding  this  "  (the 
formation  of    the  pastoral    tie)    "and    all   other   purely 


234  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

ecclesiastical  questions  for  themselves."  Mr.  Dunlop 
agreed  with  him  as  to  the  propriety  of  putting  the 
question  of  jurisdiction  "  in  the  forefront  of  the  battle, 
— or,  indeed,  making  it  the  battle  ; "  but  he  more 
than  doubted  whether  Chalmers  was  right  in  supposing 
that  statesmen  would  have  less  objection  to  that  than 
to  Non-intrusion.  "  So  far,"  said  Dunlop,  "  as  I  have 
been  able  to  judge  of  the  sentiments  and  feelings  of 
statesmen,  I  think  their  hostility  to  the  Church's  in- 
dependence is  far  more  intense  and  inveterate  than  their 
hostility  to  the  people  having  a  voice."  Sir  Eobert  Peel, 
he  remarks,  had  said,  "  we  iniijht  get  more  power  to  the 
people,  but  we  would  never  again  get  so  much  to  the 
Church." 

In  moving,  therefore,  the  adoption  of  the  Claim  of 
Eights,  Chalmers  laid  stress  upon  the  encroachments  of 
the  Court  of  Session,  and  solemnly  avowed  that  it  was  not 
possible  for  the  Church  to  submit  to  them.  Keluctantly 
but  resolutely,  "  at  tlie  expense  of  every  suffering  and  of 
every  trial,"  he  and  his  brethren  would  stand  or  fall  with 
the  "  inherent  "  and  not  less  the  "  constitutional  "  liberties 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  They  now  sought  a  clear 
and  final  response  from  the  ruling  powers.  "  If  the 
Government  be  satisfied  with  the  conduct  of  their  own 
servants,  let  them  consummate  the  deed  which  them- 
selves approve  of,  and  let  the  act  of  our  deprivation 
appear  in  its  true  character,  not  as  the  spontaneous  doing 
of  so  many  simpletons  among  ourselves,  but  as  a  great 
national  act  of  injustice,  a  flagrant  breach  of  all  national 
honour  and  good  faith." 

It  was  a  pathetic  sight  to  behold  this  old  champion  of 


THE  CLAIM  OF  RIGHTS.  235 

Church  Estabhshments  calHiig  upon  his  fellows  to  see  the 
Establishment  which  he  loved  so  well  dismantled  rather 
than  degraded.  As  has  often  been  characteristic  of  men 
of  genius,  there  was  a  vein  in  his  nature  of  childlike 
satisfaction  in  civic  pomp,  and  the  form  and  circumstance 
befitting  great  occasions  and  august  institutions.  He  had 
been  impressed  with  the  ceremonial  inauguration  of  the 
present  Assembly  by  the  Lord  High  Commissioner.  An 
unusually  brilliant  circle  had  attended  the  representative 
of  the  Queen,  and  glittering  carriages,  lines  of  cavalry, 
martial  music,  had  graced  the  procession  from  Holyrood. 
The  contrast  between  all  this  and  the  humiliation  of  the 
Church,  in  being  defied  by  her  own  ministers  and  con- 
temptuously trampled  on  by  the  Court  of  Session,  had 
struck  him  keenly.  "  It  would  truly,"  he  had  said,  "  be 
an  egregious  travesty,  it  would  make  a  farce  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  our  General  Assembly,  a  complete  laughing- 
stock of  our  Church,  were  there  left  her  no  authority  to 
enforce  obedience  from  her  own  sons.  It  would  present 
a  strange  contrast  between  the  impotence  of  our  doings 
and  the  pageantry  of  our  forms, — between  the  absolute 
nothingness  of  the  Assembly  and  the  mighty  notes  of 
preparation, — the  imposing  cavalcade  which  accompanied 
us, — the  pealing  of  the  clarionets  with  which  we  were 
conducted  into  the  House  on  the  present  occasion.  I 
must  say,  there  is  not  a  heart  that  beats  with  more 
gratification,  or  feels  more  elevation,  than  my  own,  at  the 
countenance  given  to  our  venerable  Church  at  present 
by  the  high  and  honourable  of  the  land ;  but  ours  will  be 
the  fault,  if,  untrue  to  ourselves,  if,  untrue  to  our  privi- 
leges, we  shall  allow  our  Church  to  become  a  sounduis 


236  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal,  a  hissing  and  an  astonishment 
to  all  passers-by." 

The  motion  for  the  adoption  of  the  Claim  of  Eights 
was  seconded  by  Dr.  Gordon.  It  is  a  name  that  has  not 
for  the  first  time  come  up  in  this  history.  Gordon 
was  now  in  his  wane,  and  he  had  never  been  of  the 
meteoric  kind,  or  much  of  a  leader  in  Church  Courts ;  but 
no  man  had  shone  with  steadier,  mellower,  saintlier  light 
in  the  pulpit  or  in  private  life  than  he.  Intrepid  and 
true-hearted,  he  had  placed  himself  side  by  side  with  his 
country  brethren  when  the  Lords  of  Session  had  called 
them  from  their  quiet  manses  to  be  scowled  upon  and 
reprimanded  for  having  obeyed  Christ.  He  had  always 
been  dearly  loved  and  deeply  honoured,  and  had  stood  on 
many  a  platform  with  Andrew  Thomson.  "  Beautiful," 
writes  one  who  spoke  of  what  his  eyes  had  seen,  "  was 
the  repose  of  his  (Gordon's)  lofty  brow,  dark  eye,  and 
aspect  of  soft  and  melancholy  meaning.  It  was  a  face 
from  which  every  evil  and  earthly  passion  seemed  purged. 
A  deep  gravity  lay  upon  his  countenance,  which  had  the 
solemnity,  without  the  sternness,  of  one  of  our  old 
lieformers.  You  could  almost  fancy  a  halo  completing 
its  apostolic  character." 

Dr.  Gordon  now  spoke  without  passion,  but  no  voice 
could  have  expressed  with  deeper  earnestness  the  deter- 
mination of  himself  and  his  brethren,  in  the  event  of 
their  clami  being  disallowed  by  the  Estates  of  the  Eealm, 
to  go  forward  in  the  path  of  duty.  "  We  are  bound  as 
honest  men  and  as  Christian  ministers,  with  all  calmness 
and  with  all  respect,  but  with  all  firmness  and  determina- 
tion, to  tell  them  that  we  cannot  carry  on  the  affairs  of 


THE  CLAIM  OF  RIGHTS.  237 

Christ's  house  under  the  coercion  of  the  Civil  Courts ; 
and,  however  deeply  we  may  deplore  the  loss  of  those 
advantages  which  we  derive  from  our  connection  with 
the  State,  if  ultimately  the  Legislature  determine  that 
they  will  not  listen  to  our  claim,  then  those  advantages 
we  must  relinquish,  because  we  could  not  hold  them 
with  a  good  conscience." 

The  Court  of  Session  party  in  the  Church,  with  Dr. 
Cook  as  their  wary  Palinurus,  and  Mr.  Eobertson,  of  Ellon, 
as  theii'  most  solidly  able  man  and  guiding  mind,  main- 
tained their  self-possession  on  this  testing  occasion.  By 
way  of  explicitly  declaring  that  they  were  on  the  Court 
of  Session's  side,  they  hung  out  from  their  mast-head  the 
flag  of  surrender  on  the  Veto  question.  The  Veto  Act, 
they  submitted,  had  been  referred  to  as  an  aggression  upon 
civil  rights,  and  until  this  aggression  ceased  the  Court  of 
Session  proclaimed  it  to  be  its  duty,  in  defending  the 
property  of  patrons  and  enforcing  the  Patronage  Act, 
to  paralyse  the  whole  jurisdiction  of  the  Church.  The 
Moderates,  therefore,  in  formulating  their  policy,  proposed, 
first,  that  the  Veto  Act  should  be  rescinded.  They 
proposed,  secondly,  that  the  principle  of  the  Headship 
of  Christ  over  the  Church  should  be  recognised  as  so 
abstract  and  theological  that  "  conscientious  diversity  of 
opinion  "  might  be  allowed  in  its  interpretation.  "  Much," 
said  Dr.  Cook,  "  as  we  have  of  late  heard  of  spiritual 
independence,  and  much  as  has  been  spoken  and  written 
about  it,  it  is  still  of  moment  to  define  it,  or  to  endeavour 
to  form  clear  notions  of  what  is  really  included  under  it. 

Meekly  and  with  bated  breath  as  the  Moderates  talked 
of   the    Court   of    Session,   they    were    not    prepared   to: 


238  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

endorse  all  the  proceedings  of  the  Court  in  its  practical 
enslavement  of  the  Church.  Mr.  Eobertson,  for  example, 
admitted  that  one  of  the  interdicts  issued  in  the  Strath- 
bogie  case  could  not  be  colourably  alleged  to  restrict  itself 
to  the  civil  province.  In  this  very  Assembly  an  interdict 
of  the  Court  of  Session  had  been  pleaded  by  a  clergyman 
who  had  been  deposed  by  his  Presbytery  for  theft,  and 
Dr.  Cook  and  Mr.  Eobertson  made  no  sign  of  remon- 
strance against  the  unanimous  decision  of  the  Church  to 
disregard  the  interdict  and  ratify  the  sentence  of  the 
Presbytery. 

But  all  the  confusion,  the  seeming  inconsistency,  the 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  chaos,  which  might  be  shown  to 
exist  in  Scotland,  arose,  the  Moderates  averred,  from  the 
abnormal  situation  in  which  the  Court  of  Session  found 
itself  placed.  Let  the  Church  repent,  submit,  surrender, 
and  all  would  be  well.  And  Mr.  Eobertson,  of  Ellon, 
laid  great  stress  on  what  he  maintained  to  be  the  un- 
warrantable severity  of  the  discipline  exercised  by  the 
Church  upon  those  ministers  who  had  appealed  to 
the  Court  of  Session  and  obeyed  its  commands.  Dr. 
Cook  and  Mr.  Eobertson  were  now  perfectly  aware  that,  if 
the  Claim  of  Eights  were  conceded  without  reservation, 
there  would  be  a  sombre  outlook,  not  for  the  Strathbogie 
ministers  alone,  but  for  all  except  the  undistinguished 
rank  and  file,  if  even  for  them,  of  the  Moderate  party. 
The  day  was  past  when  hope  could  be  entertained  of  a 
bloodless  victory  for  the  Church,  with  general  amnesty, 
and  obliteration  of  the  old  party  distinctions. 

Mr.  Dunlop,  whose  name  is  immortalised  and  reputation 
imperishably  established  by  the  Claun  of  Eights,  spoke 


THE  CLAIM  OF  RIGHTS.  239 

very  nobly  on  this  tlie  crowning  day  of  his  life.  "  Our 
forefathers,"  he  said,  signalising  the  illustrious  part  played 
by  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  history,  "  secured,  in  this 
corner  of  Christendc^ni,  the  recognition,  by  the  State,  of 
the  spiritual  independence  of  the  Church,  showing  how 
the  Church,  acknowledging  the  implicit  obedience  due  to 
the  temporal  power  in  matters  temporal,  may  yet,  while 
supported  and  aided  by  the  State,  conduct  her  own 
government  and  advance  the  cause  of  religion  in  spiritual 
freedom  and  independence,  with  mutual  harmony  and 
peace.  They  thus  obtained  for  the  Church  of  Scotland 
a  position  among  the  governments  of  the  nations  which 
she  has  ever  since  retained."  But  a  change  had  taken 
place.  The  powers  of  the  world  had  endeavoured  to 
enslave  the  Church.  "  From  the  very  walls  erected 
.for  our  security  they  have  assailed  us,  and  the  guards  set 
to  protect  us  have  used  the  weapons  entrusted  to  them 
for  our  defence  to  conquer  and  enslave  us."  The  Court 
of  Session  had  encroached,  the  land  had  rung  with 
conflict.  "  But  the  din  of  the  contest  has  recalled  the 
multitudes,  who  had  almost  forgotten  our  existence, 
to  a  sense  of  the  importance  of  the  post  which  we 
occupy,"  The  people  of  Scotland  have  seen  that  their 
Church  is  alive  once  more,  and  throughout  the  world  a 
vivid  interest  is  manifested  by  Christians  in  the  task 
wherein  they  are  engaged.  "  The  sympathies  of  Christians 
in  every  part  of  the  world  are  turning  toward  us ;  in  this 
Assembly,  from  England,  from  Ireland,  from  America, 
from  Switzerland,  from  Prussia,  we  have  encouragement 
by  letter,  or  by  personal  presence  of  ministers  of  the 
gospel,  all  deeply  sympathising  with  us  in  our  struggle 


240  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

for  the  rights  of  the  Church  of  God  in  connection  with 
the  kingdoms  of  the  earth.  Defending  the  citadel  which, 
as  a  Protestant  Establishment,  we  possess,  we  afford  a 
rallying  point  to  the  Christian  world,  and  through  it  the 
Churches  of  Christ  may  yet  establish  themselves  in  the 
fortress  of  the  world's  power,  and  obtain  universally  a 
national  recognition  of  the  free  and  rightful  dominion  of 
our  great  Head  and  King." 

The  motion  of  Dr.  Chalmers  was  adopted,  and  that  of 
Dr.  Cook  rejected,  by  a  majority  of  241  to  110. 

Apart  from  all  question  either  as  to  the  Christian 
tenderness  or  the  worldly  discretion  of  the  majority  in 
their  dealings  with  the  minority,  the  position  taken  up 
by  the  Church  in  the  Claim  of  Eights  was  impregnably 
strong.  As  Dunlop  simply  and  calmly  said,  the  Church 
of  Scotland  had  always  claimed  to  be  constitutionally 
established  and  yet  free.  If  any  man  disputes  this,  he 
cannot  be  admitted  into  the  arena  of  conference  or 
debate  upon  the  subject.  She  had  based  her  claim 
to  Establishment  on  her  being  a  true,  i.e.  a  free  and 
spiritually  independent.  Church,  always  putting  Establish- 
ment in  the  second  place,  not  the  first.  Her  distinctive 
doctrine  had  from  tune  immemorial  been  the  Headship  of 
Christ  over  His  Church,  implying  her  right  to  exercise, 
in  Christ's  name,  all  the  powers  necessary  to  her  life, 
growth,  efficiency,  prosperity.  On  this  all  authorities, 
from  Oliver  Cromwell  and  Walter  Scott  to  Principal 
Hill,  Dr.  M'Crie,  Andrew  Thomson,  Thomas  Chalmers, 
and  William  Cunningham,  are  at  one. 

When  had  the  Church  of  Scotland  relinquished  her 
right  and    power  to  make    laws  for  herself,  in   accord- 


THE  CLAIM  OF  RIGHTS.  241 

ance  with  the  law  of  Christ,  as  contained  in  Scripture, 
and  with  the  prhiciples  and  traditions  of  the  Church  '{ 
When  had  she  scrupled  to  declare  herself  a  free  Church, 
enjoying,  in  connection  with  the  State,  all  the  im- 
munities and  advantages  of  freedom  ?  Had  she  not, 
from  a  hundred  platforms,  hurled  back  to  Voluntaries 
who  questioned  her  liberty  the  reply,  "  I  am  as  free 
as  you "  ?  Could  it  be  alleged  of  any  non-established 
Presbyterian  Churcli  in  Scotland  or  elsewhere  that  she 
was  impotent  to  forbid  Presbyteries  to  force  ministers 
upon  reclaiming  congregations  ?  Could  it  be  alleged  of 
the  smallest  community  of  non-established  Christians 
in  England  or  America,  —  Congregationalists,  Baptists 
Wesleyans, — that  they  were  not  free  to  declare  their 
ministers  equal  to  each  other  in  power  OiUd  honour  ?  If 
it  really  was  no  lie,  but  the  simple,  unadorned  truth 
that  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  not  bartered  her  freedom 
for  Establishment,  how  could  it  be  pretended  that  she 
had  overstepped  her  powers  in  passing  the  Veto  Act  and 
the  Chapel  Ministers  Act  ?  Be  it  remembered,  that  in 
neither  of  these  did  the  Church  ask  a  shilling  of  j^roperty. 
Could  she  have  hauled  down  the  Veto  Act  and  the  Chapels 
Act  at  the  bidding  of  the  Civil  Power,  without  acknow- 
ledging before  God  and  man  that  she  had  blotted  out  the 
traditions  in  which  she  gloried,  and  that,  from  bearing 
aloft  the  banner  of  Catliolic  and  Christian  unity  in  the 
van  of  the  Reformed  Chui'ches,  she  had  slunk  into  the 
rear,  and  come  to  lieel  to  the  Court  of  Session,  the  most 
crouching  and  craven  of  them  all  ? 


16 


CHAPTER  XXX. 
Sorecaefinge  of  t^e  Contjocafion. 

ECCLESIASTICAL  chaos  reigned  in  Scotland.  The 
Court  of  Session,  confident  of  support  from  the 
Government,  and  tacitly  but  resolutely  guided  by  the 
Dean  of  Faculty,  shrank  from  no  extreme  in  the 
assertion  of  its  power  to  coerce  the  Evangelical  majority. 
The  country  was  convulsed  by  the  dissension  between 
those  who  put  the  State  first  and  the  Church  second, 
and  those  who  put  the  Church  first  and  the  State 
second. 

We  saw  how,  while  the  wintry  wind  moaned  over  a 
waste  of  snow,  the  parishioners  of  Marnoch  had  left 
their  beloved  church  rather  than  see  a  pastor  sacri- 
legiously forced  on  them  by  the  tools  of  the  Court  of 
Session.  At  Culsalmond  the  parishioners  had  reclaimed 
almost  as  strongly  as  at  Marnoch,  and  when  the  attempt 
was  made  by  the  Court  of  Session's  ministers  to  thrust 
in  a  minister  against  their  will,  they  had  themselves 
abstained  from  violence  as  had  the  men  of  Marnoch ;  but 
the  general  democratic  feeling  of  the  country  had  been 
roused,  and  a  noisy  crowd  from  the  adjacent  districts, 


FORECASTINGS  OF  THE  CONVOCATION:  243 

rushing  into  the  church,  interrupted  the  proceedings, 
shouted,  mocked,  and,  in  fact,  compelled  the  enslavers  of 
the  people  to  beat  a  retreat  to  the  manse  and  accomplish 
their  purpose  in  secret.  Lamentable  this  was,  no  doubt, 
but  the  surgings  of  sympathetic  mobs  have  been  among 
the  accompaniments  and  indirect  effects  of  many  noble 
revolutions,  and  Scotchmen  who  are  not  ashamed  of  the 
doings  of  Jenny  Geddes  and  her  friends  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  will  not  be  oppressed  with  shame  for  the 
riotous  interruption,  in  the  nineteenth,  of  the  forced 
settlement  of  Culsalmond. 

In  the  August  following  the  Assembly  of  1842,  the 
House  of  Lords  pronounced  judgment  in  what  is  known 
as  the  second  Auchterarder  case.  The  patron  and  presentee 
obtained  a  verdict  in  their  favour,  requiring  the  Presby- 
tery to  proceed  to  the  ordination  of  the  presentee,  and 
awarding  damages,  which  the  pursuers  estimated  at 
£10,000.  The  actual  amount  levied  might  be  altered 
l)y  assessment  before  a  jury,  but  it  was  now  plain  that 
I'resbyters  could  be  heavily  lined  for  declining  to  obey 
the  Court  of  Session,  and  for  persisting  in  obeying  the 
Church,  in  the  settlement  of  ministers.  Imprisonment 
had  been  threatened.  Fines  were  imposed.  The  atmo- 
sphere of  Scotland,  becoming  electric,  vibrated  with  an 
excitement  stronger  than  any  she  had  known  since  the 
Union  with  England. 

The  dual  system  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  vaunted 
to  be  an  example  to  the  universe,  had  broken  down. 
What  was  to  be  done  ?  "  Is  one  violent  settlement  after 
another,"  asks  Dr.  Candlish,  "  to  be  perpetrated  in  spite 
of   the  authority  of  the   Church  ?       Are  men   to  rebel 


244  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

and  set  the  Church  at  defiance  ?  Is  this  to  go  on  year 
after  year  ?  "  With  that  penetrating  keenness  of  intel- 
lectual glance  which  the  simple  have  called  prophecy 
and  second  sight,  he  has  now  discerned  that  the  claims 
of  the  Church  will  not  be  conceded.  We  saw  with 
what  luminous  precision  he  defined  the  power  of  the 
Civil  Magistrate,  not  only  in  temporal  things,  but,  circa 
sacra,  in  the  external  and  mechanical  matters  connected 
with  things  spiritual.  He  was  ready  to  yield  anything 
that  did  not  touch  the  life.  He  declared  himself,  how- 
ever, no  idolater  of  Establishment.  Even  in  the  mind  of 
Chalmers  there  seemed  to  be  at  moments  something  like 
a  superstitious  horror  as  to  what  was  called  the  Volun- 
tary system.  The  vague  notion  appears  to  have  been  that 
this  was  some  dogmatic  and  determinate  scheme,  tyranni- 
cally re(|uiring  Christians  to  pronounce  it  sinful  in  the 
Church  to  receive  any  aid  from  the  State,  and  in  the 
State  to  receive  any  aid  from  the  Church.  Candlish 
dismissed  these  spectral  fancies.  A  Voluntary  Churcli 
lie  saw  to  be  merely  a  Church  conducted,  in  relation  to 
the  maintenance  of  pastors,  on  the  principles  prevalent 
in  the  apostolic  age,  and  indisputably  sanctioned  by 
Paul  in  his  first  letter  to  the  Corinthians.  It  might  or 
it  might  not  be  that,  wdien  ciix'umstances  altered,  those 
who  preached  the  gospel  should  "  live  of  the  gospel,"  as 
they  did  in  Corinth  and  Galatia  in  I'aul's  time ;  but 
Presljyterians  of  all  people,  with  their  liabit  of  insistence 
on  the  letter  of  biblical  prescription,  ought  to  have  been 
the  last  to  be  shocked  at  the  survival  or  revival  of  Paul's 
Church  economics. 

So  early,  also,  as  the  autumn  of    1841,  Dr.  Candlisli 


FORECASTINGS  OF  THE  CONVOCATION.  245 

had  anticipated  Chalmers  in  the  practical  announcement 
of  a  Sustentation  Fund.  Referring  to  the  "  apostolic 
rule  that  all  things  in  this  matter  should  be  in  common," 
he  expressed  his  conviction  that,  in  the  event  of  a 
catastrophe,  the  Clnu'ch  would  adopt  it.  "  There  are 
some  of  us  favourably  situated,"  he  said,  "  in  the  larger 
towns  of  the  country,  and  in  possession  of  youth  and 
vigorous  health,  who  might  find  little  difficulty  in  retain- 
ing congregations  who  would  devote  their  means  wholly 
to  the  maintaining  of  the  minister  among  them.  But 
would  this  be  reasonable  to  our  fathers  who  have  spent 
their  days  in  lonely  valleys  of  our  land,  to  our  brethren 
who  have  borne  the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day,  and 
that  in  districts  where,  willing  as  the  people  might  be 
to  support  their  beloved  pastors,  they  are  straitened 
from  the  want  of  means  ?  There  can  be  no  doubt,  I 
should  think,  that  if  God  gave  the  ministers  of  this 
Church  grace  to  be  so  faithful  to  our  principles  as  to 
consent  to  the  loss  of  their  benefices  rather  than  sur- 
render this  principle  for  which  she  is  contending,  —  I 
cannot  doubt,  I  say,  that  He  will  give  us  the  further 
wisdom  to  provide  in  some  such  way  as  this  that  the 
ministry  throughout  the  land  should  share  in  common 
from  the  freewill  offerings  of  the  whole  people."  This 
was  spoken  by  the  greatest  preacher  that  had  appeared 
in  Scotland  since  the  rise  of  Chalmers,  the  darling  pastor 
of  the  richest  congregation  in  the  Church.  To  read  it  is 
like  bathing  in  a  well  filled  with  the  very  dews  of  God. 

The  Marquis  of  Bute  had  transmitted  the  Claim  of 
Bights  and  the  petition  against  patronage  to  Sir  James 
Graham   to   be   submitted  to   the   Queen.      On  tlie  20th 


246  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

of  June  1842,  Sir  James  Graham  addressed  a  letter 
to  Lord  Bute,  who  passed  it  to  the  Moderator  of  the 
Assembly.  If  presentation  of  the  document  to  Her 
Majesty  "  implied  in  the  least  degree  the  adoption  of 
their  contents,"  Sir  James  would  not,  he  said,  have  pre- 
sented these ;  but  as  then-  tone  was  respectful,  and  they 
purported  to  be  "  a  statement  of  grievances  from  the 
supreme  ecclesiastical  authority  in  Scotland,"  he  pro- 
mised to  do  so.  In  this  there  was  no  glimpse  of  hope 
nor  did  the  Government  stretch  out  its  little  finger  to 
stay  the  chariot  in  which  the  Court  of  Session  was  riding 
rough-shod  over  the  liberties  of  the  Church.  Well  was 
it  for  Scotland  in  those  circumstances  that  her  clergy, 
disseminated  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
country,  were  no  mere  disjecta  membra,  of  a  vague,  semi- 
organic  whole,  like  the  Church  of  England,  but  were 
pervaded  with  a  sense  of  national  and  ecclesiastical 
unity,  .accustomed  to  act  together,  and  possessed  of 
leaders  capable  of  confronting  and  dealing  with  the  most 
difficult  emergency. 

It  appears  to  have  been  with  Hanna,  the  clear-minded, 
quietly  eloquent,  finely  gifted  biographer  of  Chalmers, 
that  the  idea  of  calling  together  a  Convocation  of  the 
faithful  among  the  clergy  originated.  Chalmers  mentions 
tlie  suggestion  in  a  letter  of  19th  September  1842, 
and  in  his  energetic  hands  it  soon  took  practical  effect. 
In  a  circular,  initiated  by  him  and  signed  by  thirty- 
two  clergymen,  eminent  and  of  reverend  age,  the  Evan- 
gelical ministers  of  the  Establishment  were  invited  to 
assemble  in  Edinl)urgh,  with  a  view  to  arriving  at  a 
perfect    nnitual     understanding,    demonstrating     to     the 


FORECASTINGS  OF  THE  CONVOCATION.  247 

Government  and  the  nation  that  they  were  not  a  flock 
scattered  on  the  mountains  to  be  hunted  down  apart, 
but  a  host  inspired  with  the  inflexible  determination  of 
maintaining  the  spiritual  independence  of  the  Church 
or  casting  off  the  fetters  of  Establishment. 

Candlish  eagerly  hailed  the  proposal.  Of  all  forms 
of  anguish  for  his  impetuous  spirit,  that  of  teasing 
suspense  and  wordy  disputation  was  the  most  painful. 
But  both  for  him  and  for  Cunningham,  respecting  whom, 
in  Moderate  circles  in  Scotland  and  in  the  ears  of  Con- 
servative ministers  in  London,  there  were  whispers  of 
cunning  detraction  as  to  the  mischief-making  wizards  who 
had  brought  Chalmers  himself  under  their  spell,  it  was 
wise  to  keep  rather  in  the  background.  There  was  a 
breath  of  jealousy  even  among  the  country  Evangelicals 
respecting  the  excessive  influence  of  Edinburgh ;  and  the 
Edinburgh  influence  centred  in  the  great  "  twin  brethren," 
Cunningham  and  Candlish.  Perfectly  agreed  in  their 
opinions,  heroically  pure  and  elevated  in  their  motives, 
knit  together  in  the  tender  brotherhood  of  Christian 
friendship,  these  were  content  to  do  their  work  without 
putting  themselves  forward. 

Guthrie  sketched  beforehand  with  consummate  accuracy 
the  alternative  courses  of  action  wdiich  would  l^e  discussed 
at  the  Convocation,  and  which  respective  sections  among 
the  ministers  were  expected  to  favour.  He  was  himself 
heart  and  soul  with  Candlish  and  Cunningham,  resolute 
to  go  forward  in  the  straight  path.  "  Some  of  us,"  he 
wrote  in  a  letter  of  the  deepest  confidence  to  his  friend 
MacCosh,  "  entertain  very  decided  opinions  about  the 
unlawfulness   of    the    Church    continuing   in    connection 


248  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

with  a  State  whicli  insists  on  Erastian  conditions,  and 
draws  the  sword  of  persecution  against  the  reclamiing 
Clmrch.  Our  idea  of  the  Church's  duty  is  this : — That 
on  many  accounts  she  should  not  rashly  proceed  to  dis- 
solve the  connection,  but  should  go  to  the  Government  of 
the  land,  explain  how  the  terms  on  which  she  was  united 
to  the  State  have  been  altered  to  all  practical  purposes 
by  the  late  decisions,  how  the  compact  had  been  therein 
violated,  and  how  she  cannot  continue  to  administer  the 
affairs  of  the  Estal)lishment  unless  she  is  to  be  freed  from 
inv^asion  and  protected  against  persecution  ;  tliat  there- 
fore unless  the  Government  and  Legislature  shall,  within 
a  given  and  specified  time,  redress  the  wrongs  we  com- 
plain of,  we  shall  dissolve  the  union,  and  leave  all  the 
sms  and  consequences  at  the  door  of  an  Erastian  and 
oppressive  State." 

But  there  were  others,  prominent  among  them  Mr.  Begg, 
who  took  a  different  line.  "  Their  idea,"  proceeds  Guthrie, 
"  is  to  remain  in  the  Establishment  till  driven  out,  doing 
all  the  duties  that  belong  to  them.  Well,  our  manifest 
duty,  under  the  idea  of  remaining,  is  to  purify  the  Church 
of  Erastianism,  and  preserve  it  from  it.  So  they  agree 
that  at  this  Convocation  the  ministers  should  resolve  to 
admit  no  Erastian  into  the  Church,  to  license  no  Erastian 
student,  to  translate  no  Erastian,  and  to  thrust  out  of  the 
Church  without  any  mercy  every  man  and  mother's  son 
that  avails  himself  of  these  Erastian  decisions,  acknow- 
ledges them  as  binding  the  Church,  or  would  in  any  way 
apply  them  in  the  face  of  our  own  laws."  Gutlirie  admits 
that  his  section  would  have  no  conscientious  objection 
to  thus  standing  on  the  defensive  and  the  offensive,  and 


FORECASriNGS  OF  THE  CONVOCATION.  249 

sketches,  in  a  few  masterly  strokes, .  the  circumstances 
that  would  arise  under  the  proposed  course  and  the  pro- 
Ijable  issue.  "  We  must  cast  out  of  the  Church  all  that 
preach  for,  or  in  any  way  by  overt  acts  countenance,  the 
deposed  of  Strathbogie.  We  must  cast  out  of  the  Church 
the  Moderate  majority  of  the  late  Synod  of  Aberdeen,  and 
in  less  than  two  years  we  have  all  the  Moderates  declared 
to  be  no  longer  ministers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
They  constitute  themselves  into  law  Presbyteries,  depose 
our  clergy  within  their  bounds,  declare  their  parishes 
vacant,  ordain  ministers  of  their  own  on  the  presentation 
of  patrons,  and  then  claim  the  stipends,  and  they  are 
given  them ;  and  so,  without  the  glance  of  a  bayonet  or 
ring  of  a  musket, — the  appearance  even  of  a  law  func- 
tionary,— we  are  quietly  dispossessed  and  put  down." 
The  Church  would  thus  be  transformed  in  the  wrong- 
way,  and  man  after  man  the  ministers  w^ould  seem  to  be 
"  strugglhig  for  a  stipend,"  and  no  intelligible  testimony 
would  be  borne  to  truth  and  principle.  On  the  other 
hand,  if,  on  calmly  demanding  their  rights,  and  on  being- 
denied  them,  they  in  a  body  dissolved  connection  with 
the  State,  their  deed  "  would  fill  the  brightest  page  in 
Church  history." 


CHAPTEE  XXXI. 
^^e  Convocation. 

TN  response  to  Chalmers's  invitation,  the  clergy  flocked 
-^  together  from  all  parts  of  Scotland.  One  of  the 
members  of  the  Convocation  noted  that,  on  his  Way  up 
to  Edmburgh,  he  had  met  the  minister  of  Maidenkirk, 
and  that,  having  arrived,  he  found  himself  in  the  same 
lodgings  with  a  minister  from  John  o'  Groats.  There 
were  four  hundred  and  sixty  of  them  by  tale,  and  their 
quality  was  still  more  remarkable  than  their  numbers. 
"  This  band,"  said  Lord  Cockburn,  "  contains  the  whole 
chivalry  of  the  Church." 

The  Convocation  opened  in  St.  George's  Church,  Edin- 
burgh, on  the  17th  of  November  1842.  Chalmers 
preached,  choosing  for  his  text  the  Scripture  words, 
"  Unto  tlie  upriglit  there  ariseth  light  in  tlie  darkness." 
More  solemnly  beautiful  watchword  for  men  contemplat- 
ing an  enterprise  of  great  pith  and  moment  could  not 
be  furnished  by  the  literature  of  the  world.  A  glance  of 
courage,  hope,  and  exultation  flashed  from  eye  to  eye 
when  the  words  were  uttered.  "  The  great  lesson  of  this 
text,"  said   Chalmers,  "  is  the  connection  which  obtauis 


THE  CONVOCATION.  251 

between  integrity  of  purpose  and  clearness  of  discernment, 
insomuch  that  a  duteous  conformity  to  what  is  riglit  is 
generally  followed  up  by  a  ready  and  luminous  discern- 
ment of  what  is  true."  "  My  venerable  fathers  and 
brethren  of  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland,  I  will 
not  speak  of  it  as  a  certainty  that,  if  you  persevere  in 
the  high  walk  of  uprightness  on  which  you  have  entered, 
the  secularities  of  that  Establishment  will  be  wrested 
from  your  hands.  It  would  not  be  venturing  far,  how- 
ever, to  speak  of  it  as  a  probabiHty  and  a  hazard,  and 
surely,  at  the  very  least,  not  to  speak  of  it  as  a  possibility 
were  downright  affectation.  I  rejoice  to  believe  that, 
whatever  be  the  shades  or  diversities  of  sentiment  upon 
lesser  questions,  the  tie  of  that  great  and  common  principle 
which  hitherto  has  bound  us  together  remains  unbroken, 
— that  I  speak  in  the  hearing  of  men  firmly  resolved 
as  ever  to  lose  all  and  to  suffer  all  rather  than  surrender 
the  birthright  of  those  prerogatives  which  we  inherit 
from  our  fathers,  or  compromise  the  sacred  liberty 
wherewith  Christ  has  made  us  free, — of  men  whose 
paramount  question  is.  What  is  duty  ?  that  best  step- 
ping-stone to  the  solution  of  the  other  question,  What 
is  wisdom  ? " 

The  sermon  was  characterised  by  one  who  heard 
it  as  "  solemn,  tender,  scriptural,  faithful,  full  of  tact 
and  of  power,  much  fitted  to  confirm  the  weak  and 
embolden  the  fearful,  and  to  animate  us  in  an  upright 
way."  The  temper  of  the  assemblage  was  that  of  high- 
wrought  spiritual  enthusiasm.  The  proceedings  were 
constantly  interrupted  by  reading  of  the  Scriptures, 
prayer,  and  praise.      "  0  send  Thy  light  forth  and  Thy 


252  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

truth."  Unless  we  enter  into  their  pervading  senti- 
ment of  heroic  faith  and  fervour,  —  if  we  permit  any 
breath  of  worldly  cynicism  to  blind  us  to  the  spiritual 
elevation  of  these  men, — we  absolutely  fail  to  realise 
the  situation. 

"  Dark-brow'd  sophist,  come  not  a-near, 
All  the  place  is  lioly  ground." 

And  the  principle  of  intellectual  action,  as  cleared 
lather  than  clouded  in  the  serene  elevation  of  moral 
purpose,  did  not  belie  itself  in  the  practical  operations  of 
the  Convocation.  Candlish  had  developed  a  capacity 
for  business,  a  fineness  and  firmness  of  touch  in  managing 
men,  w^hich  worked  in  marvellous  harmony  with  his 
genius  as  an  orator.  To  the  seeing  eye  it  becomes 
plain,  as  we  glance  along  the  notes  of  the  sessions  of  the 
Convocation,  preserved  to  us  by  Dr.  James  Henderson 
and  published  in  the  biograpliy  of  Candlish,  that  it  was 
in  his  creative  brain  that  the  masterly  arrangements  for 
disencumbering  the  discussion  of  non-essentials,  mmimis- 
ing  talk,  procuring  complete  expression  of  opinion,  and 
conducting  the  whole  to  a  definite,  clear,  wise,  and  riglit 
conclusion,  took  shape. 

On  the  first  day  there  was  much  speaking,  evidently 
a  good  deal  of  noise,  of  self-assertion,  with  traces  of  dis- 
trust, jealousy,  discord.  "  On  the  whole,  I,"  Dr.  Hender- 
son, "  feel  uncomfortal)le  and  anxious  for  results."  But 
a  Committee  to  arrange  the  order  of  business  was  got 
appointed,  and  Candlish  was  in  it.  Next  day,  at  the 
morning  diet,  it  appeared  that  the  Committee,  with 
Candlish  in  it,  had  not  lost  time  in  superfluous  slumber. 
"  Candlisli,"   the  other   Connnittee   men   would   probably 


THE  CONVOCATION.  2oo 

have  said,  "  hath  murdered  sleep."  At  all  events  he 
was  ready  with  the  report.  It  was  a  model  of  brevity 
and  sagacity  in  the  laying  down  of  rules,  and  a  mastei- 
piece  of  comprehensiveness,  lucidity,  accuracy,  in  stating 
the  subjects  of  discussion.  Throughout  the  assemblage 
there  was  not  a  wliisper  of  dissent,  not  a  suggestion  of 
improvement. 

Dr.  Henderson  begins  to  feel  much  less  uncomfort- 
able. "  On  this  matter  of  business,"  he  notes,  "  perfect 
inmnimity, — a  great  blessing,  and  a  token  for  good."  It 
gradually  becomes  clear  that  there  will  be  considerable 
difference  of  view  on  the  subject  of  patronage  as  related  to 
spiritual  independence.  Dr.  Chalmers,  we  saw,  had  voted 
with  Cunningham  and  Candlish  in  the  Assembly  in  favour 
of  a  petition  for  the  abolition  of  patronage  ;  but  neither 
he  nor,  indeed,  Cunningham  and  Candlish  had  held  that 
it  was  impossible  to  secure  Non-intrusion  without  absolute 
destruction  of  patronage ;  and  therefore  he  opposed  an 
"  extreme  anti-patronage  proposal "  tabled  by  Begg.  The 
point  was  a  fine  one.  Candlish,  who  combined  Puritan 
fervour  witli  a  faculty  for  distingtiishing  and  analysing 
equal  to  that  of  Aquinas,  made  it  clear,  in  a  speech  "  very 
clever  and  very  fine,"  that  Begg  himself  did  not  consider 
abolition  of  patronage  indispensable  to  Non-intrusion  ;  and 
the  effect  of  his  extpiisitely  lucid  reasoning  was  sunnned 
\q)  in  the  practical  obser\^tion :  "  Certainly  our  existence 
under  it  hitherto  shows  that  we  may  exist  still  (as  an 
Establishment)  tliough  it  should  remain."  But  he  was 
convinced  that,  in  order  to  reconcile  patronage  with  Non- 
intrusion, i.e.  with  consent  of  the  people,  such  an  elaborate, 
complicated,  and  delicate  tissue  of  phrases  was  necessary. 


254  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

that  the  result  of  an  attempt  to  provide  such  must  be 
misunderstandmg  and  disaster. 

Cunningham  agreed  with  Candlish.  Too  much  of  a 
Presbyterian  to  confound  between  Non  -  intrusion  and 
popular  election,  too  much  of  a  Church  historian  to  forget 
that  even  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  not  uniformly 
made  abolition  of  patronage  a  sim  qua  non  of  connection 
with  the  State,  he  did  not  say  that  the  Church's  spiritual 
jurisdiction  must  be  sacrificed  if  patronage  were  permitted, 
in  any  form  or  to  any  extent,  to  remain.  But  he  re- 
membered that  the  prowlers  of  the  Court  of  Session,  if 
attracted  by  patronage,  w^ere  sure  to  come  for  prey  into 
perilous  proximity  to  the  sheepfolds  of  the  Church,  and 
"  cautioned  us  most  adroitly,"  says  Henderson,  "  against 
our  extreme  present  danger, — a  Non-intrusion  measure 
which  does  not  rid  us  of  the  invasion  of  the  Civil  Courts." 

The  essential  tiring  was  felt  by  all  to  be  spiritual 
independence,  involving  Non-intrusion.  But  Candlish  held 
that  it  was  fair  to  Begg  and  his  friends  to  put  on  record 
their  strong  view  against  patronage.  Chalmers  admitted 
tliat  this  was  "  only  keeping  faith  with  Mr.  Begg,"  but 
strongly  urged  him  and  his  friends  to  forego  the  privilege. 
Candlish  carried  his  point.  We  are  unanimous,  there- 
fore. All,  without  ripple  of  difference,  hold  that  it  is  a 
matter  of  life  and  death  to  guard  the  spiritual  freedom  of 
the  Church,  and  a  large  number  think  that  the  best  way 
to  do  this  is  to  abolish  patronage. 

But  the  real  difficulty  had  still  to  be  encountered. 
What  attitude  was  the  Church  to  take  up  ?  Were  the 
fathers  and  brethren  in  any  case  to  stay  in  and  show 
fight,  or  were  they,  in  the  event  of  being  denied  redress, 


THE  CONVOCATION.  255 

to  quit  the  Establislmieiit  ?  Ay,  there's  the  rub.  Some 
liegin  to  be  conscious  of  a  certain  quahniness  in  the 
region  of  the  heart.  Here,  for  example,  is  Dr.  Dewar, 
of  Aberdeen,  a  gentle,  well  -  meaning,  dignified  person, 
truly  Evangelical,  liberal  of  his  sermons  on  charitable 
occasions,  the  very  pink  of  clerical  respectability.  "  Dr. 
Dewar  rose  with  deep  solemnity ;  came  up  with  the 
impression  that  it  w^is  too  soon  to  contemplate  a  removal, 
or  take  any  resolution  regarding  it ; — don't  outrun  Pro- 
vidence." Let  us  judge  no  man.  Sometmies  one  may 
conscientiously  show  the  white  feather.  Mr.  Brodie,  of 
Monimail,  the  same  who  stood  by  Mr.  Clark,  of  Inver- 
ness, in  counselling  tenderness  in  the  matter  of  the 
Strathbogie  rebels,  now  speaks  out  bravely.  "  If  I  am 
in  doubt  as  to  the  course  of  duty  when  danger  comes, 
I  will  cast  in  my  lot  wdth  the  losing  party."  Dr.  Dewar 
did  not  come  out. 

Chalmers  throws  in  his  royal  word  to  define  the 
action  of  the  Church  in  the  event  of  a  Disruption.  There 
was  no  question,  he  said,  of  going  out  of  the  Cliurch ; 
"  not  we,  but  the  endowments,  were  going  out."  On 
another  occasion  he  adverted  to  "  the  cry  of  schism."  It 
was  a  cry,  he  said,  by  which  corrupt  Churches  disguised 
then-  faithlessness  to  truth.  According  to  the  principles 
on  which  these  condemn  schism,  "  there  never  could  have 
been  separation  from  the  Church  of  Eome."  In  the  pre- 
sent instance,  as  abiding  by  the  Church's  principles,  from 
which  others  are  departing,  "  ice  are  the  Church  minus 
the  endowments."  It  admits  not  of  a  moment's  dispute, 
that  the  men  who,  expressly  disobeying  the  Church,  put 
themselves  into  subjection   to  the  Court  of  Session,  did 


256  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

really  separate  from  the  Church  and  commit  schism.  If 
an  Italian  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie  were  to  defy  their 
ecclesiastical  superiors,  and  place  themselves  under  the 
tribunals  of  united  Italy,  all  the  world  would  acknowledge 
that  they,  and  not  the  Eoman  Church,  weie  in  schism. 
When  we  consider  that  Chalmers  had  been  for  thirty 
years  the  most  splendid  ornament  of  an  Established 
Church,  and  that  he  had  by  common  consent  been 
recognised  and  crowned  as  the  greatest  living  defender 
of  Established  Churches,  we  must  gi-ant  that  it  was  in 
him  a  fine  illustration  of  combined  moral  and  mental 
power  to  discern  so  clearly  w^herein  lay  the  life,  and 
wherein  lay  only  the  meat  and  raiment,  of  Established 
Churches. 

The  old  argument  that  the  Church  ought  to  repeal  the 
Veto  Act  came  up,  but  the  conclusive  answer  to  it  was 
ready  on  the  lip  of  Candlish.  The  Church,  he  reminded 
his  brethren,  had  always  proclaimed  herself  willing  to 
shelve  the  Veto,  if  only  the  principle  of  Non-intrusion, 
the  sacred  right  of  the  people  embodied  in  the  ancient 
call,  were  conceded.  But  of  this  no  promise  or  pledge 
had  been  given. 

What  is  to  be  done  ?  The  highest  mounted  minds  in 
the  Convocation  —  happy  Convocation,  to  have  such  a 
cluster  of  minds  to  lead  it ! — wei-e  unanimous.  Looking 
into  the  "sacred  morning"  of  the  future,  solemnly,  not 
without  awe,  but  yet  calmly  trustuig  in  God,  they  saw 
that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  go  forward. 
Chalmers,  Candlish,  Cunningham,  Guthrie,  Gordon, 
Eobert  Buchanan,  saw,  as  with  one  flash  of  mtuition, 
that  if  the  Legislature  gave  no  redress,  it  would  be  the 


THE  CONVOCATION.  257 

part  of  the  Church  not  to  engage  in  an  ignommious 
wrestle  with  the  Court  of  Session,  but  to  leave  the 
Establishment.  A  great  body  of  superior  men,  less 
distinguished  than  these,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the 
rank  and  file,  were  prepared  to  follow  them. 

But  it  soon  appeared  that  there  was  a  minority,  not 
insignificant  in  numbers,  and  formidable  from  the  ability 
of  its  chiefs,  which  was  strongly  bent  on  protracting  the 
conliict,  and  staving  off,  for  an  indefinite  period,  separa- 
tion from  the  State.  By  far  the  most  remarkable  man 
in  this  party  was  Mr.  Begg.  Still  in  the  very  prune 
of  manhood,  firm  of  fibre  in  body  and  in  soul,  there 
were  few  Non-intrusionists  in  Scotland  better  known, 
or  better  deserving  to  be  known,  than  Begg  of  Liberton. 
He  had  won  his  spurs,  as  we  saw,  by  audaciously  facing 
an  eminent  Moderate  orator  in  debate,  and  since  that 
day  he  had  never  fallen  into  the  background.  He  had 
defended  the  Church  against  the  Voluntaries,  on  the 
ground  that,  though  established,  she  was  free.  No  one 
saw  more  clearly  than  he  that  if  the  Court  of  Session 
triumphed,  this  argument  must  vanish.  "  If,"  he  had 
said  in  the  Assembly  of  1840,  "they  allowed  the  Court 
of  Session  to  interpret  the  limit  of  their  power,  they  gave 
to  Voluntaries  a  weapon  with  which  they  would  beat 
down  any  Establishment  upon  earth." 

In  that  Assembly,  two  years  before  things  had  reached 
the  present  extremity  of  disorder  and  oppression,  when 
the  Church  was  being  invited  to  accept  the  Aberdeen 
compromise,  none  had  spoken  out  more  clearly  than 
Begg,  or  with  more  of  the  clarion  note  in  his  voice. 
"  He  saw  nothing,"  he  said,  "  for  the  Church  but  either 
17 


^oy  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

a  glorious  dissolution  from  the  State,  retaining  all  her 
principles  entire,  or  the  abandonment  of  her  principles, — 
the  prostration  of  herself  at  the  feet  of  the  State,  and 
her  utter  extinction  piece-meal,  from  the  desertion  of  the 
best  of  her  people.  It  appeared  to  him  that,  although 
the  Church  of  Scotland  was  a  poor  Church  (and  her 
poverty  was  principally  owing  to  the  faithful  contending 
for  her  present  principles),  yet,  being  free,  she  was  a 
noble  Church.  When  they  looked  to  all  the  Chui'ches 
of  the  Keformation  fettered  and  prostrated  before  the 
Civil  Power,  and  thought  of  their  own  Church,  free  and 
independent  though  supported  by  the  Civil  Power,  he  felt 
that  she  was  a  noble  specimen  of  the  Church  of  Christ." 
His  next  words  might  have  been  spoken,  and 
most  appropriately  spoken,  in  his  place  as  a  member  of 
the  Convocation.  "  The  question  was  now  tried  with 
regard  to  her,  whether  it  was  possible  to  have  a 
Church  Establishment  and  at  the  same  time  maintain 
her  ecclesiastical  freedom  as  a  Church  of  Christ,  and  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  a  Christian  people.  If  by  their 
vote  they  give  the  slightest  countenance  to  any  individual 
in  determining  that  question  so  as  to  peril  the  existence 
of  our  spiritual  independence, — so  as  to  peril  or  endanger 
the  rights  of  the  people, — he  saw  nothmg  for  it  but  dis- 
solution to  the  Church.  But  if  they  stood  true  and 
united  within,  he  had  no  fear  of  their  enemies  from  with- 
out. Truth  was  great, — it  had  prevailed  in  times  past 
over  far  mightier  difficulties, — and  he  trusted  that  by  the 
aid  of  the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  whose  prerogatives 
they  were  endeavouring  to  defend,  the  Church  would 
again  be  rescued  from  danger  and  perplexity ;  they  would 


THE  CONVOCATION.  259 

not  fear,  God  Himself  woiikl  defend  and  protect  her,  and 
that  right  early." 

There  are  some  who  may  be  tempted  to  exclaim,  that 
it  had  been  well  for  Begg  and  for  Scotland  if  he  had 
died  after  uttering  these  noble  words.  Tlien  would  the 
garland  of  his  fame  have  shone  for  ever  on  his  brow,  with 
the  dews  of  dawn  upon  it.  The  difference,  the  disputa- 
tion, that  now  emerged  in  the  Convocation  was  the 
prognostic  of  a  divisive  influence,  destined  to  tell  with 
pathetic  effect  in  the  future  history  of  the  Church.  That 
galaxy  of  glorious  leaders, — that  choir  of  morning  stars 
that  sang  together  at  the  birth  of  the  Free  Church, — how 
well  had  it  been  if  they  had  remained,  or  if  their  in- 
spiration had  sufficiently  remained,  to  keep  the  Church 
on  the  Hues  they  indicated  ! 

But  we  have  perhaps  no  right  to  anticipate,  and  it 
must  be  clearly  remembered  that,  wliile  the  galaxy  of 
great  ones  continued  to  shine,  nay  even  after  Chalmers 
had  set,  and  so  long  as  Candlish,  Cunningham,  Guthrie, 
and  Buchanan  remained  above  the  horizon,  Begcr  did  ever, 
as  on  the  present  occasion,  with  what  mixture  there 
might  be  of  idiosyncrasy  and  self-assertion,  yield  finally 
to  the  celestial  voices.  His  intense  instincts  of  disputa- 
tion and  destruction  were  quelled  by  the  mightier 
instincts  of  construction,  of  order,  of  expansion,  of  union. 

Chalmers  was  now  in  his  most  exalted  mood.  "  If 
free,  the  Church  of  Scotland  might,"  he  said,  "  be  the 
rallying  point  for  evangelical  truths  throughout  the 
world."  And  as  for  the  trouble,  tlie  danger,  the  apparent 
loss,  involved  in  freedom,  he  feared  them  not.  He 
launched  into  a  description  of  tlie  Divine  enthusiasm,  the 


260  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

spiritual  passion,  the  sweet  communion  and  fellowship, 
enjoyed  by  Christian  brethren  in  times  of  persecution  and 
excitement.  "  He  was  himself,"  says  our  reporter,  "  the 
most  striking  impersonation  of  the  passion  which  he  so 
elo(|uently  and  vividly  depicted.  I  cannot  recall  it — 
it  burst  like  electricity  upon  us — not  less  brilliant  and 
effective  than  the  most  brilliant  and  striking  of  all  the 
productions  of  his  mind.  The  effect  was  astonishing." 
Truly  a  notable  fact.  It  reminds  one  of  the  pathetically 
earnest  and  beautiful  declaration  by  Jeffrey,  that  a  quite 
peculiar  influence,  of  a  sacredly  elevating  natui'e,  had 
been  exerted  upon  him  by  this  man.  The  visible  glow 
of  moral  elevation  in  Chalmers — the  Mosaic  brightness 
of  the  face  of  one  that  had  been  on  the  Mount — has, 
when  weighed  in  the  severest  scales  of  science,  a  real 
value,  as  casting  light  upon  some  difficult  and  mysterious 
but  quite  practical  problems  connected  with  genius  and 
inspiration.  Tennyson  meant  more  than  to  say  a  merely 
pretty  thmg  when  he  spoke  of  seeing,  at  moments  of 
special  elevation,  "  the  God  within  him  light  the  face " 
of  his  friend  Arthur  Hallam.  And  if  the  glow  on  one 
God-revealmg  face  has  been  strong  enough  to  light  with 
spiritual  radiance  a  vista  of  two  thousand  years,  shall  we 
hesitate  to  say  that,  whatever  there  may  have  been  of 
myth  or  of  miracle,  there  was,  to  begin  with,  an  inde- 
structible kernel  of  historical  fad  in  the  transfigicration 
of  Jesus  Christ  ? 

Once  more,  however,  we  liave  to  observe  that 
Chalmers,  though  the  most  spiritually  exalted  man  in 
that  assemblage,  was  perhaps  also  the  most  practical. 
It  was  not  strange,  considering  his  fame  as  a  political 


THE  CONVOCATION.  2G1 

economist,  that  he  should  cheer  the  hearts  of  the  brethren 
with  calculations  as  to  the  probable  provision  to  be 
made  by  a  thoroughly  roused  and  grateful  people  for 
a  Church  that  had,  for  the  people's  sake,  parted  from 
the  State.  One  might  have  fancied,  from  his  sanguine 
trust  in  the  generosity  of  the  devout  rich,  and  in  his 
still  fonder  trust  in  the  power  of  the  unnumbered 
littles  of  Christ's  poor,  that  he  had  been  a  Voluntary 
platformist  all  his  days.  So  warmly  did  he  paint  the 
lifeboat,  that  some  one  cried  out  that  he  made  it  look 
better  than  the  ship, — a  pathetic  jest  which  evoked  one 
of  the  few  laughs  of  the  Convocation. 

To  go  forward,  then,  following  the  glow  upon  the  face 
of  Chalmers,  was  the  prevailing  sentiment  of  the  Con- 
vocation ;  but  we  are  bound  to  take  some  note,  were  it 
only  for  the  sake  of  historical  fidelity,  of  the  resolute 
effort  of  Begg  and  his  section  to  perpetuate  the  struggle 
indefinitely  within  the  Establishment.  Begg  admitted 
that,  if  the  Civil  Power  had  formally  imposed  Erastianism 
on  the  Church,  then  the  hour  would  have  struck  for 
departure.  But  he  refused  to  take  the  law  of  the 
Court  of  Session,  or  even  of  the  Government,  as  final. 
He  would  take  it  only  from  the  Estates  of  the  Eealni. 
Nay,  he  seemed  at  moments  to  fall  back  still  further, 
and  maintain  what  was  theoretically  true,  that  the  rights 
of  the  Church  were  bound  up  with  the  Treaty  of  Union 
and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  that 
not  even  Parliament  could  alienate  them. 

He  proposed  to  confront  law  with  the  fulminations  of 
Church  discipline.  The  whole  Synod  of  Aberdeen,  he 
was  reminded,  sympathised  with  the  schismatic  Presbyters : 


262  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

would  he  depose  a  whole  Synod  ?  "  Undoubtedly,"  said  the 
dauntless  Begg.  "  Our  ancestors  m  1638  deposed  by  one 
stroke  all  the  bishops  of  Scotland,  and  the  result  of  this 
bold  measure  was  that  their  cause  triumphed,  and  in  a 
little  time  the  storm  was  past  and  gone."  A  most  admir- 
able debating  hit.  But  in  1638  the  bishops  wxre  a 
handful  of  individuals,  and  the  Church  had  behind  her  the 
force  of  Scotland,  ecclesiastical  and  civil ;  for  at  that  time 
Montrose  was  still  among  the  Church  leaders.  In  1662, 
when  the  Church  really  had  the  alternative  placed  before 
her  of  surrendering  her  principles  or  turning  out  on  the 
hillsides,  she  made  no  attempt  to  struggle  on  against  the 
Government.  She  quitted  the  Establishment ;  she  chose 
poverty  and  worldly  degradation ;  she  saw  her  saintly 
peasants  shot  at  their  cottage  doors,  and  her  holy  virgins 
drowned  on  her  tidal  sands ;  but  she  had  her  reward  : 
she  raised  such  a  testimony  to  her  distinctive  principle 
that  all  men  understood  it  and  honoured  her ;  she  won 
the  love  and  trust  of  the  Scottish  people  for  ever ;  and 
she  now,  in  this  autumn  of  1842,  had  such  men  to 
guide  her  as  Chalmers,  Cunningham,  Candlish,  Guthrie, 
and  Begg.  Clearly,  though  a  clever  allusion  to  history 
might  tell  for  a  moment,  in  debate,  Begg  w^as  not  likely 
to  convince  a  Convocation  containing  Cunningham,  that 
the  Church  ought  to  remain  at  all  hazards  within  the 
Establishment. 

The  constitutional  argument,  potent  to  mystify,  and 
seducingly  sweet  in  its  suggestion  that  separation  from 
the  dignity  and  emoluments  of  an  Establishment  could 
never  be  a  duty,  was  effectually  disposed  of  by  Chalmers  as 
"  a  discovery,  fetched  from  the  depths  of  a  metaphysical 


THE  CONVOCATION.  263 

jurisprudence,"  which  "  left  us  independent  of  all  decisions 
of  Civil  Courts  free,  or  bound  to  keep  our  places." 
Evangelicals  of  the  Church  of  England,  hear  these  words  ! 

Begg  was  too  solidly  able,  too  firmly  based  on  common 
honesty  and  common  sense,  to  make  nnich  of  the  con- 
stitutional argument,  but  he  found  it  hard  to  reconcile 
himself  to  a  surrender  of  the  practical  advantages  of 
Establishment.  What  would  they  not  lose  !  "  We  are 
driven  from  universities,  from  parish  schools ;  we  leave 
many  parishes  without  the  gospel,  where  not  a  spot  of 
ground  can  be  got  to  build  a  church  upon.  Let  all  this 
come  if  there  was  necessity  for  it ;  but  he  could  see  no 
necessity."  It  was  no  mean  craving  for  the  emoluments 
of  Establishment  that  animated  Begg.  What  sent  a 
pang  to  his  heart  was  to  see  that  vision  of  spiritual 
possibilities  vanish  like  a  fading  sunset. 

One  of  the  points  on  which  he  dwelt  was  that,  in 
their  rude  haste  to  sweep  aside  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Church,  the  Civil  Courts  had  made  her  answerable  for 
the  indirect  and  practically  inevitable  effects  of  Church 
discipline.  In  so  doing,  the  Courts  really  declared 
war  against  the  liberties  of  all  Nonconformist  Churches. 
Why  go  out,  if  the  law  will  track  you  and  persecute  you 
as  before  ?  The  answer  was  —  or  rather  might  have 
been,  for  it  was  not,  to  our  knowledge,  expressly  given 
at  the  Convocation  —  that,  whatever  may  be  said  or 
done  by  wrong-headed  lawyers,  the  non- established 
Churches  are  really  more  free  than  Erastian  Establish- 
ments. The  Church  of  Scotland,  the  moment  she 
stepped  beyond  the  State  pale,  would  be  under  the 
expanse  of  toleration.      The   liberty  enjoyed  by  all  the 


264  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

free  Churches  of  England  and  of  Scotland  would  be 
hers.  The  self-supporting  Churches  are  guarded  by  the 
nation's  sense  of  justice.  In  England  or  in  Scotland  a 
stupid  judge  may  give  trouble  by  ignorantly  misunder- 
standing or  maliciously  misapplying  the  privilege  of  self- 
government  exercised  by  the  free  Churches,  but  Britons 
love  fair  play,  and  their  liberty  and  self-government  are 
beyond  general  or  serious  attack.  Their  purely  spiritual 
jurisdiction,  —  their  strictly  Church  discipline,  —  which 
alone  is  a  matter  between  them  and  Christ,  requires  no 
backing  from  the  secular  arm ;  and  none  of  them — 
Wesleyans,  Congregationalists,  Presbyterians,  Papists — 
have  in  their  monetary  arrangements  found  the  opera- 
tion of  the  common  law  unsatisfactory. 

On  this  matter  it  was  not  possible  either  for  Begg  or 
any  of  the  consummately  able  men  who  led  the  Convoca- 
tion to  see  beyond  the  immediate  future.  Again  and 
agam  it  was  declared  by  Candlish  that  the  reckless 
aggressions  of  the  Court  of  Session  might  bring  into 
jeopardy  that  spiritual  freedom  on  which  the  Voluntaries 
had  plumed  themselves.  They  actually  did  so  in  the 
Cardross  case.  Chalmers  saw  persecution  looming  as  a 
clear  possibility  at  a  very  measurable  distance.  But 
persecution  has  never  been  an  insuperable  difficulty  for 
"  holy  and  humble  men  of  heart,"  whose  allegiance  to 
Christ  was  an  affair  of  conscience.  And  the  first  attempt 
of  the  Court  of  Session  to  enslave  a  tolerated,  self-main- 
tained Church  proved  to  be  futile  and  the  last. 

No  shadow  of  difference  arose  between  Begg  and  his 
brethren  on  the  point  of  standing  by  their  guns  in  the 
sense  of  standing  by  their  principles.      The  diiference  was 


THE  CONVOCATION.  265 

that  Begg  clung  with  all  the  desperate  tenacity  of  his 
nature  to  the  idea  that  the  guns  of  Establishment  might 
possibly  be  used,  if  not  permanently,  at  least  for  some  time 
longer,  in  defence  of  the  principles. 

Chalmers,  Candlish,  Cunningham,  Guthrie,  Gordon,  and 
Buchanan  saw  that  this  could  not  be, — that  the  Church 
possessed  no  arm  of  flesh  to  oppose  to  encroaching  Courts 
or  Legislatures,  —  that  her  spiritual  freedom  was  now 
being  trampled  down, — and  that,  therefore,  if  relief  did 
not  come,  and  come  promptly,  she  must  go  forth. 

Let  us  be  just  to  Begg.  He  was  no  traitor,  no 
trimmer.  He  secured  that  the  whole  compass  of  alter- 
native courses  should  be  boxed,  that  the  kaleidoscope  of 
possible  opinion  on  the  situation  should  come  full  circle 
round.  And,  above  all,  be  it  distinctly  admitted  and 
reahsed  that  he  did  not  hold  out  against  the  general 
sentiment.  His  biographer  says  justly  that  he  acquiesced 
in  the  resolutions.  Nor  will  all  readers  agree  with  Dr. 
Thomas  Smith  that  Dr.  Henderson's  inestimable  notes 
of  the  Convocation  convey  "an  impression  that  Dr. 
Begg  was  less  zealous  than  his  brethren,  or  more  cautious 
as  to  committing  himself."  No.  The  notes  produce  the 
impression  that  he  would  stick  to  the  Establishment  like 
limpet  to  the  rock,  so  long  as  he  thought  the  spiritual 
independence  of  the  Church  could  in  that  way  be  pre- 
served. But  he  formally  withdrew  his  objections  to  the 
view  taken  by  the  brethren  in  general,  and,  when  this 
was  done,  no  man  spoke  out  more  clearly  than  he.  The 
storm  he  had  conjured  up  in  the  Convocation  passed 
over,  and  he  had  the  magnanimity  to  be  swayed  by  wiser 
and  greater  men  than  himself. 


CHAPTEE  XXXII. 
€^e  Court  of  Session's  fast  €ti\xmp^B^ 

THE  Convocation  ended  in  harmony  among  the 
brethren,  and  fortitude  and  clear  determination 
with  reference  to  the  future.  As  autumn  deepened  into 
winter,  the  ministers  carried  into  every  corner  of  Scot- 
land the  quickening  power  of  the  inspiration  they  had 
received.  Among  the  causes  of  satisfaction  with  which 
all  who  have  regard  for  the  honour  of  human  nature 
may  be  expected  to  view  the  results  of  the  meeting,  this, 
surely,  is  greatest,  that  no  evasion  was  attempted,  no 
theological  phrase  of  disputable  significance  devised,  under 
cover  of  which  the  Church  might  secure  the  sweet  emolu- 
ments, and  sweeter  dignities  and  peaceful  routine  and 
comfort,  of  Establishment,  and  yet  make  pretence  of 
retaining  her  freedom.  No  betrayal  of  Christ  with  a 
kiss,  in  the  form  of  some  verbal,  visionary,  and  abstract 
recognition  of  His  Headship !  We  came  to  you  a  free 
Church,  we  can  part  with  you  a  free  Church ;  we  must, 
in  any  case,  stand  fast  in  the  lil)erty  wherewith  Christ 
hath  made  us  free.  Such,  in  etfect,  was  the  message 
of  the  Convocation  to  the  State. 


THE  COURT  OF  SESSION'S  LAST  TRIUMPHS.      267 

The  Church  declined  to  contmue  an  ignonihiious  and 
anarchical  struggle  with  the  law  Lords  and  their  vassal 
clergy  in  Scotland.  In  the  Memorial  drawn  up  by  the 
Convocation  to  be  presented  to  the  Legislature,  it  was 
declared  that  such  a  contest  could  not  fail  to  be  attended 
with  pernicious  consequences, "  affecting  both  the  majesty 
of  law  and  the  highest  interests  of  religion,"  The  ques- 
tion now  was,  whether  the  State  would  or  would  not 
commit  "  the  heinous  national  offence  of  not  only  break- 
ing the  national  faith,  but  disowning  the  authority  of 
Christ  in  His  own  House,  and  refusing  to  recognise  His 
Church  as  a  free  spiritual  society,  instituted  by  Hun,  and 
governed  by  His  laws  alone." 

Scotland  rang  with  agitation,  the  whole  atmosphere 
quivering  with  an  excitement  so  characteristic  of  Scot- 
land, so  strange  to  other  lands.  In  hall  and  in  cottage, 
in  mansion  and  farm,  in  street  and  at  market,  men  spoke 
of  the  grand  struggle  going  on.  Guthrie's  biographers 
tell  us  that  seven  hundred  and  eighty  -  two  distinct 
pamphlets  might  be  noted  among  the  phenomena  of  the 
time.  The  wrestle  between  the  Churchmen,  who  were 
also  the  people's  men,  and  the  Court  of  Session's  tools, 
was  raging  wildly.  In  most  places  the  feeling  of  the 
pastors  and  of  the  population  was  ardently  expressed 
in  favour  of  the  Church,  l)ut  throughout  the  Synod  of 
Aberdeen  the  influence  of  Moderatism  prevailed.  The 
Court  of  Session,  encouraged  no  doubt  by  the  approbation 
and  acquiescence  of  a  party  in  the  Church,  carried 
matters  with  a  high  hand,  and  scrupled  not  to  make 
fresh  inroads  upon  the  spiritual  jurisdiction. 

Occurring  with  pathetic  seasonableness  as  an  illustra- 


268  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

tion  of  the  completeness  with  which  the  Court  of  Session 
was  divesting  the  Scottish  Establishment  of  all  legis- 
lative power  in  the  spiritual  province,  there  was  delivered, 
on  the  20th  of  January  1843,  the  judgment  of  the  Court 
in  the  Stewarton  case.  Its  salient  point  was  that,  as 
the  Auchterarder  judgments  had  cancelled  the  Church's 
legislation  combining  the  action  of  patronage  with  the  will 
and  consent  of  the  people  in  the  settlement  of  ministers, 
so  the  Stewarton  judgment  nullified  the  legislation  of 
the  Church  giving  effect  to  her  principle  of  parity 
among  ministers.  In  their  dealings  with  the  parish  of 
Auchterarder,  the  law  Lords  had  struck  down  the  Church's 
Ijarrier  against  intrusion ;  they  now,  by  their  Stewarton 
decision,  struck  down  the  Church's  Chapel  Act.  Thus 
had  they  scornfully  smitten  into  ruins  the  whole  edifice 
of  Church  reform  as  it  had  arisen  under  the  unpulse 
of  Chalmers. 

The  Dean  of  Faculty,  now  Lord  Justice-Clerk,  had  done 
his  work.  If  the  Legislature  did  not  restore  what  the 
Court  of  Session  had  taken  away,  and  if  the  Church  of 
Scotland  acquiesced,  then  did  the  Church  possess  no 
jurisdiction.  The  respondents  for  the  Church  in  the 
Stewarton  case  distinctly  informed  the  Lords  of  Session 
that  they  would  not  obey  them.  "  Whatever  judgment 
your  Lordships  may  pronounce,  the  respondents  freely 
and  at  once  avow  that  in  regard  to  the  matters  here  in 
question,  they  will  continue  to  give  obedience  to  the 
injunctions  of  the  ecclesiastical  judicatories  to  which  they 
are  subordinate," 

During  those  days  Candlish's  whole  nature  burned 
with  the  intensity  of  his  spiritual  passion.      Tlie  vague 


THE  COURT  OF  SESSION'S  LAST  TRIUMPHS.      2 09 

hopes,  the  busy  weaving  of  cobweb  compromises  and 
gossamer  explanations,  that  deceived  feebler  men,  were 
shrivelled  into  dust  by  the  impetuous  lightnings  of  his 
mind.  He  knew  that  separation  was  inevitable.  He 
frankly  avowed  that,  were  he  a  Congregationalist,  were 
he  not  one  of  a  company  of  Presbyterian  brethren,  he 
would  go  out  at  once.  The  May  month  and  the 
Assembly  were  drawing  near,  and  he  panted  for  the 
decisive  moment.  Moving  about  from  place  to  place, 
now  in  London,  now  in  Edinburgh,  now  in  the  West  of 
Scotland,  wherever  statesmen  were  to  be  interrogated, 
wherever  great  meetings  were  to  be  addressed,  there 
was  he ;  and  wherever  he  came,  he  brought  illumina- 
tion. Never,  however,  was  that  superb  intellect  shaken 
from  its  calmness  of  vision,  from  its  poised  and  perfect 
apprehension  of  the  position,  or  from  lucid  moderation  of 
speech.  The  jurisdiction  he  claimed  for  the  Church  was 
neither  Popish,  including  infallibility,  nor  revolutionary, 
overleaping  bounds,  but  liberty  "  to  regulate  the  concerns 
of  Christ  on  the  principles  of  a  Church  of  Christ,  not  by 
the  determination  of  civil  rulers  in  ecclesiastical  matters, 
but  by  the  word  of  Christ  alone,  interpreted  by  the 
prayerful  study  of  our  minds  and  hearts." 

No  arrangement  which  refused  the  spiritual  jurisdiction, 
and  left  patronage  in  the  way, — no  arrangement  which 
disallowed  the  original  claim  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
to  negotiate  with  the  State  on  the  footing  of  a  jurisdic- 
tion derived,  not  from  the  State,  but  from  Christ, — no 
mere  independence  by  sufferance, — could  he  consider 
adequate  or  safe.  "  Unquestionably  Parliament  might 
lay  down  a  form  of  proceeding  wliich  would  enable  tlie 


270  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Church  to  give  effect  to  the  Non-intrusion  principle,  and 
might  say  that  if  the  Church  adheres  to  that  form  of 
proceeding,  her  sentences  shall  not  be  reviewed  by  the 
Civil  Courts.  But  still  the  Civil  Courts  will  be  entitled 
to  come  forward  and  say,  You,  the  Church  Courts,  have 
transgressed  that  form  which  it  is  for  us  to  interpret, 
and  therefore  we  will  subject  you  to  actions  of  damages, 
and  compel  you  to  act  on  our  view  of  the  law.  Here  is 
the  essence  of  the  question.  The  slave  may  have  his 
chain  lengthened,  the  captive  may  have  the  range  of  his 
walk  enlarged ;  but  if  the  chain  be  round  him  still,  he  is 
not  the  less  a  slave ;  if  the  walls  still  enclose  him  on 
every  side,  he  is  not  the  less  a  captive." 

They  must  take  their  stand,  therefore,  on  first  principles, 
and  recur  to  the  watchword  of  their  Covenanting  fore- 
fathers :  "  The  Crown  rights  of  the  Eedeemer."  It  may  be 
that  persecution  will  follow  them  out  of  the  Establishment, 
l)ut  all  the  same,  "  Oh,"  cries  Candlish,  "  let  us  be 
resolved  and  determined  that  we  shall  maintain  the  rights 
of  Christ  the  King,  whether  in  or  out  of  the  Establishment, 
under  persecution,  if  need  be."  And  solemnly,  as  the 
hour  approaches  when  he  must  go  one  way,  and  those  of  his 
brethren  who  have  disobeyed  the  Church  and  bowed  their 
necks  to  the  Court  of  Session  another,  he  touches  on  the 
question  of  schism.  "  Very  extraordinary  words  have 
been  employed,  not  in  random  speeches,  but  in  documents 
of  Church  Courts,  imputing  to  us  the  sin  of  introducing 
a  schism  into  the  Church  of  Scotland.  I  won't  venture 
to  say  that  the  sin  of  schism  has  not  been  committed ; 
but  let  it  be  ever  borne  in  mind  that,  in  deciding  on 
whose  side  the  guilt  lies,  it  is   essential  to  discuss  the 


THE  COURT  OF  SESSION'S  LAST  TRIUMPHS.      271 

question  on  which  we  have  separated.  They  may  be 
the  schismatics  who  have  consented  to  remain  beliind. 
Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  guilt  of  the  schism  is  not 
to  be  determined  by  the  question  which  party  began,  or 
which  party  have  been  most  active ;  but  simply  and 
solely  by  the  question,  Which  is  the  party  who,  on  the 
point  at  issue,  have  acted  in  accordance  with  the  word  of 
God, — which  party,  I  say,  not  in  the  manner  of  maintain- 
ing it  only,  but  which  party  in  the  thing  maintained,  have 
upheld  the  testimony  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ? " 

On  the  4th  of  January  1843,  a  letter  was  received  in 
Edinburgh  from  Sir  James  Graham,  who  had  the  manage- 
ment of  the  Scottish  Church  question  in  Sir  Robert 
Peel's  Government.  It  held  out  no  prospect  that  the 
Claim  of  Eights  and  the  petition  against  patronage  would 
be  favourably  considered.  On  the  31st  of  January  the 
Commission  of  Assembly  met.  Dr.  Welsh,  the  Moderator, 
having  explained  the  circumstances  of  its  meeting  in  view 
of  Sir  James  Graham's  letter.  Dr.  Cook,  the  ever  vigilant 
and  adroit  leader  of  the  Court  of  Session  clergy,  rose  and 
called  attention  to  the  Stewarton  decision  as  bearing  on 
the  constitution  of  the  Commission.  It  was  in  virtue  of 
powers  conferred  by  the  Church,  and  now  cancelled  by 
the  Court  of  Session,  that  certain  of  the  brethren  had 
been  enrolled  as  members  of  the  Commission.  Dr.  Cook 
declared  himself  bound  to  require  that  these  should  be 
excluded.  Mr.  Dunlop  pointed  out,  in  reply,  that  the 
time  legally  available  for  appeal  against  the  Stewarton 
decision  had  not  expired.  But  the  shadow  cast  before  by 
the  Court  of  Session  sufficed  for  Dr.  Cook.  He  pressed 
his  motion,  and  23  out  of  the  138  members  of  the  Com- 


272  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

mission  gave  him  their  votes.  Having  read  a  protest, 
affirming  the  Commission  to  be  illegally  constituted,  he 
and  the  minority  withdrew. 

Ecclesiatically  this  was  an  explicit  act  of  schism. 
Tactically,  however,  the  manoeuvre  was  fine.  The  leader 
of  the  Erastian  section  had  for  his  object  to  blazon  it 
throughout  the  Church  that  the  Court  of  Session  had 
virtually  decreed  that  there  should  be  two  castes  in  the 
clergy.  The  decree  of  the  Court  would  add  greatly  to 
the  force  of  Dr.  Cook's  party  as  a  voting  power  in 
Presbyteries,  Synods,  and  the  General  Assembly.  The 
chapel  ministers,  emancipated  by  the  Evangelicals,  were 
naturally  their  allies ;  and  now  Dr.  Cook  would,  of  course, 
be  prepared  to  challenge  the  right  of  any  chapel  minister 
to  sit  in  the  General  Assembly.  His  withdrawal  from 
the  Commission  with  his  followers  may  be  justly  described 
as  a  formal  act  of  schism.  "  We,"  he  virtually  said,  "  are 
the  Church  constituted  ]jy  the  State."  "  And  we,"  the 
others  virtually  replied,  "  are  the  Church  constituted  by 
Christ." 

All  the  more  smoothly,  on  account  of  the  secession  of 
the  Moderates,  did  the  Commission  mature  arrangements 
for  making  the  final  appeal  of  the  Church  to  the  Estates 
of  the  Eealm  during  the  approaching  session. 


CHAPTEE  XXXII I. 

Z^c  ©eBafe  in  f^e  Common0— (^n  imaginary 
^peec^  6g  (Butyric, 

r\^  the  7th  of  March  1843,  the  case  of  the  Church 
^-^  was  brought  before  the  House  of  Commons  by  Mr. 
Fox  Maule.  It  was  a  memorable,  a  solemn  occasion, — 
unique,  perhaps,  in  the  history  of  Parliaments,  and 
deserving  mention  in  the  annals  of  the  Universal  Church. 
At  the  Reformation  the  Church  in  Scotland  had  assumed, 
as  inalienably  hers  from  Christ,  that  spiritual  jurisdiction 
which  Henry  YIII.  had  usurped  in  England.  At  the 
Eevolution  Settlement  this  spiritual  jurisdiction  had 
formed  an  essential  condition  of  Establishment.  It 
was  explicitly  embodied,  as  clearly  stated  in  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
Kingdom.  There  was  no  other  instance  in  Europe  in 
which  the  arrangements  between  Church  and  State,  at 
the  end  of  the  Reformation  period,  had  attained  to  sucli 
a  consummation.  The  question  now  was,  whether  the 
experunent  of  a  free,  living,  growing  Church,  exercising 
spiritual  jurisdiction  in  friendly  connection  with  the 
State,  had  or  had  not  broken  down.  The  Courts  of  law 
i8 


274  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

in  Scotland  had  come  into  collision  with  the  Church. 
The  state  of  thuigs  was  admittedly  intolerable.  The 
Church  had  announced  her  intention,  if  it  must  continue, 
of  relinquishing  Establishment.  Would  the  House  of 
Commons  do  aught  to  avert  the  catastrophe  ? 

Parliament  evinced  no  particular  interest  in  the 
matter.  There  was  not  half  a  House.  But  too  much 
stress  must  not  be  laid  upon  this  circumstance.  The 
attendance  was  larger  than  could  have  been  looked  for 
on  the  night  of  an  Indian  budget  or  an  important 
Colonial  debate.  ,  From  270  to  300  members  were 
present.  The  leading  men  in  all  sections  put  in  an 
appearance. 

Sir  Eobert  Peel  had  evidently  taken  pains  to  acquaint 
hunself  with  the  subject,  and  had  mastered  some  of  its 
superficial  aspects ;  but  he  fell  short  in  that  practical 
sagacity,  he  lacked  that  penetratmg  glance,  by  which  tlie 
inner  truth,  however  veiled  it  may  be  m  speciosities 
and  superficialities,  is  reached. 

Lord  John  Eussell — the  well-meaning,  unimpassioned, 
superior  but  never  superlative  little  John,  who  was  born 
to  come  always  so  near  greatness  as  to  make  his  miss 
of  it  conspicuous — expatiated  in  generalities,  dwelt  on 
the  difficulties  of  the  situation,  was  so  sorry  that  the 
excellent  Church  of  Scotland  was  in  trouble,  would  have 
been  happy  to  help  her  if  he  could,  but  couldn't.  The 
diminutive  Lord  .John,  however,  was  a  gentleman.  He 
had  no  part  in  the  vileness  of  tliose  churls  wdio  called 
the  Scotch  Churchmen  hypocrites  or  tricksters.  "  Of 
this  I  am  convinced,"  he  said,  "  that  there  are  many  of 
the  ablest,  best,  and  most  pious  ministers  of  the  Church, 


THE  DEBATE  IN  THE  COMMONS.  275 

who,  if  you  should  shut  the  door  to  reconcilemeut  com- 
pletely, would  thiuk  it  their  conscientious  duty  to  leave 
the  Church.  I  have  said  many  able  and  pious  ministers. 
There  are  two  of  them  whom  I  have  heard  in  the  pulpit, 
though  I  am  neither  a  Scotchman  nor  a  member  of  the 
Scotch  Church, — I  mean  Dr.  Chalmers  and  Dr.  Candlish, 
— men  in  their  separate  ways  as  well  fitted  to  expound 
the  word  of  God,  to  enforce  the  obligations  of  morality, 
and  to  lead  the  people  in  the  ways  of  the  gospel,  as 
any  men  belonging  to  any  Church  in  any  part  of  the 
world."  Is  it  not  pathetic  that  he  should  not  have 
dared  to  say  at  once  that  these  men  could  not  be  ani- 
mated by  any  nefarious  purpose  in  seeking  to  render 
their  Church  spiritually  efficient  ? 

Gladstone  and  Palmerston  were  present,  but  took 
no  part  m  the  debate.  Charles  Villiers  and  Cobden 
— clariLm  et  venerahile  nomen  ! — voted  in  favour  of  the 
Church.  So  did  Macaulay,  but  his  vote  was  silently 
given.  He  did  not  tell  the  House,  as  he  might  have 
done,  that  his  friend  Hallam,  in  his  standard  work  on 
the  Constitution,  had  declared  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  to  have  been  embodied  in  the 
Treaty  of  Union  between  England  and  Scotland.  Nor 
did  he  anticipate  his  own  denunciation  of  the  Patronage 
Act,  uttered  in  the  House  a  couple  of  years  later,  as  a 
"  breach  of  the  Treaty  of  Union."  Charles  Buller  voted 
as  became  a  friend  of  Carlyle.  Sir  George  Grey  spoke 
at  some  length  on  behalf  of  the  Church.  The  debate 
occupied  two  nights,  and  fills  thirty  or  forty  of  the 
doubled-columned  pages  of  Hansard. 

The  speakers  against  the  Church's  claim,  while  using 


276       THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

courteous  words,  seemed  one  and  all  to  be  oppressed  by 
a  sense  of  some  enormous  absurdity,  some  extravagance 
of  tyrannical  usurpation,  which  the  Scottish  clergy  were 
bent  on  perpetrating.  Sir  William  Follett,  an  English 
lawyer  of  the  highest  reputation,  professed  himself  un- 
able to  believe  that  the  law  of  Scotland  could  possibly 
embrace  the  theory  of  concurrent  and  co-ordinate  juris- 
dictions, each  supreme  in  its  own  province,  as  put  forward 
by  the  advocates  of  the  Church.  On  such  a  theory  he 
pronounced  it  absolutely  incredible  that  the  Civil  Courts 
and  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts  could  act  harmoniously. 
He  was  willing  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the 
Church  in  spiritual  things,  but  he  started  as  at  an 
adder  in  his  way  when  the  Church  insisted  upon  drawing 
for  herself  the  line  of  demarcation  between  spiritual  and 
civil.  What  Sir  William  Eollett  said  was  so  lucid  and 
looked  so  reasonable,  that  his  speech  was  eminently 
fitted  to  deepen,  in  the  minds  (jf  simple,  straightforward 
Englishmen,  the  suspicion  that  these  Scotch  parsons 
were  either  very  bad  or  very  mad,  and  that  the  House 
ought  to  make  short  work  of  their  nonsense. 

Sir  Eobert  Peel's  speech,  elaborately  plausible,  its 
sophisms  lying,  for  the  most  part,  well  hid  under  its 
generalities,  would  have  passed  off'  finely  as  an  oration 
by  some  leading  Moderate  in  the  (Jeneral  Assembly. 
He  praised  the  Church  with  honest  cordiality.  He  had 
enjoyed,  he  said,  "  an  opportunity  of  observing  the  worth 
of  the  ministers  of  that  Church."  He  had  marked  in 
them  a  combination  of  solid  learning  and  theological 
acquirement,  of  sterling  worth  and  great  energy  in  the 
work  of  their  parishes,  which  made  a  deep  impression  on 


THE  DEBATE  IN  THE  COMMONS.  277 

him.  That  impression,  he  said,  "  had  not  been  effaced 
by  what  had  since  occurred."  Coming  to  closer  quarters, 
"  There  is  no  disposition,"  he  made  bold  to  affirm,  "  on 
the  part  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  deprive  it  (the 
Church)  of  any  privilege  which  is  essentially  necessary 
to  its  efficiency  as  an  Establishment."  He  did  not 
scruple  to  admit  the  spiritual  independence  of  the 
Church.  "  We  all  admit  that  to  the  Church  belongs 
the  exclusive  jurisdiction  in  ecclesiastical  matters."  Is 
it  not  astounding  to  come  upon  a  declaration  like  this 
by  the  Prime  Minister  of  Great  Britain,  made  a  couple 
of  months  before  the  Disruption  ?  On  the  Veto  Law  he 
pronounced  slight  censure  or  none.  Practically  he  might 
be  said  to  have  sanctioned  its  working.  The  Government 
patronage  had,  as  we  know,  been  exercised  in  Scotland 
for  years  after  its  enactment  in  harmonious  accordance 
with  its  provisions.  But  by  persisting  in  it  after  its 
legal  character  had  been  denied  by  the  highest  authority, 
the  Church,  he  held,  had  put  herself  in  the  wrong.  The 
law  had  been  declared  ;  and  need  it  be  said  that,  to  Sir 
liobert  Peel,  the  law  was  a  spectre  at  whose  approach  all 
resistance  ought  to  give  way  ? 

It  was  when  he  took  up  tlie  question  of  the  discipline 
practised  by  the  Church  that  Sir  Pobert's  tone  sharpened 
into  severity,  and  he  used  terms  of  angry  condemnation. 
He  referred  to  the  "  violent  and  tyrannical  act  by  which 
the  Church  deposed  those  ministers  who,  having  taken 
the  oath  of  allegiance,  considered  it  to  be  their  duty  to 
obey  the  laws  of  their  country."  Again  and  again  he 
repeated  his  denunciation  of  tliis  infliction  of  tlie  severest 
punishment  upon  clergymen  for  yielding  "  obedience  to 


278  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

the  law  of  the  land."  He  maintained  that  they  were 
"  deprived  of  their  civil  rights."  He  would  not  hear 
of  severing  spiritual  thmgs  in  parishes  from  things 
temporal.  The  obvious  meaning  and  purport  of  the 
Patronage  Act  was,  he  insisted,  that  the  minister  of 
the  parish  should  both  perform  the  parochial  duties  and 
enjoy  the  living.  "  What  becomes  of  the  stipend  ?  "  Was 
one  man  to  receive  it  from  the  patron,  while  the  Church 
declared  that  he  was  no  mmister  at  all  ?  And  was 
another  man,  ordained  pastor  of  the  parish  by  the  Church, 
to  receive  none  of  the  money  ?  It  could  never  have 
been  rationally  contemplated  that  two  men  should  thus 
struggle  against  each  other  in  one  parish.  Such  a  state 
of  things  would  be  anarchy. 

But,  apart  from  all  question  as  to  the  stipend,  there 
were  other  effects  of  deposition,  said  Sir  Eobert,  to  be 
considered.  The  stipend,  in  fact,  is  "  not  the  most 
important."  There  were  things  dearer  to  a  man  than 
stipend.  "  It  is  the  degradation  of  character  to  whicli  these 
men  are  subjected  that  most  aff'ects  me."  In  short,  Sir 
Eobert  Peel  distinctly  and  indignantly  included  within 
the  civil  jurisdiction  those  indirect  effects  of  spiritual 
sentences  which  the  Church  always  admitted  to  be 
inevitable.  Warming  as  he  spoke,  he  accused  the  Church 
of  outdoing  Eome  herself  in  domineering  pretensions. 
"  I  do  maintain  that,  even  in  times  that  preceded  the 
Keformation,  the  Church  of  Eome  never  laid  claim  to 
a  greater  power  than  that  involved  in  the  claims  now 
set  up." 

The  idea  of  some  monstrous  solecism  and  incredibility 
having    been   blundered   into  by   the    clergy  manifestly 


THE  DEBATE  IN  THE  COMMONS.  279 

haunted  him  as  it  did  Sir  William  Follett.  As  the  clear- 
headed English  lawyer  refused  to  regard  the  existence  of 
two  independent  jurisdictions  in  Scotland  as  credible,  so 
Sir  Ptobert  refused  to  believe  it  possible  that  the  House 
of  Lords  had  sanctioned  any  real  encroachment  by  the 
Court  of  Session  on  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the 
Church.  "  I  will  venture  to  say,  if  the  civil  tribunals 
attempted  to  control  the  Church  in  a  matter  purely 
spiritual,  there  would  at  once  be  an  intervention  on  the 
part  of  Parliament  to  control  the  tribunals." 

Towards  the  end  of  the  speech  he  came  upon  delicate 
ground.  "  Take,"  he  said, "  the  case  of  the  Ptoman  Catholics, 
or  any  of  the  Protestant  Dissenters  m  this  country,  who 
are  not  connected  with  the  State  by  way  of  Establish- 
ments. Their  right,  so  far  as  voluntary  jurisdiction  is 
concerned,  is  quite  supreme,  and  we  do  not  attempt  to 
interfere  with  it."  But  these  w^ere  not  estabhshed ;  and 
that  made  all  the  difference.  He  evaded,  or  overlooked, 
the  question,  in  this  instance,  of  indirect  effects. 

The  presentation  of  the  Church's  case  was  creditable  to 
the  speakers,  but  not  original,  not  masterly,  not  adequate 
to  the  requirements  of  an  unprecedented  and  most 
difficult  occasion.  Fox  Maule,  afterwards  Earl  of 
Dalhousie,  a  nobly  patriotic,  devout,  and  capable  man, 
beautiful  in  person  and  character,  mtrepidly  loyal  to  his 
native  land  and  his  ancestral  Church,  deserved  the  immor- 
tality of  fame  which  his  speech  and  his  conduct  of  the 
debate  secured  him.  He  shirked  no  labour,  spoke  for 
hours,  but  did  not  convince  his  audience.  Eutherf urd  was 
a  lawyer  of  recognised  ability,  a  lucid  and  effective  pleader, 
not  a  commanduig,  statesmanlike  mind,  to  lift  the  debate 


280  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

out  of  commonplace  ruts  and  suggest  an  original  solution 
of  an  original  and  perplexing  problem.  Speech  after 
speech  was  spirited,  argument  after  argument  was  telling 
and  seemed  conclusive,  and  yet  the  gloom  and  oppressive- 
ness, as  of  some  dark  mystery,  continued  to  pervade  the 
atmosphere  of  the  House.  In  vain  did  the  advocates 
of  the  Church  quote  Scotch  statutes  from  the  time  of 
eTohn  Knox  downward.  In  vain  was  the  historical  and 
notorious  claim  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  an  mde- 
pendent  spiritual  jurisdiction  again  and  again  appealed  to. 
You  could  not  say  that  the  speakers  were  at  any  point 
wrong,  and  yet  the  clouds  would  not  lift,  the  general 
nebulous  haze  continued  to  float  around,  the  vessel  was 
driftmg  full  upon  the  rocks. 

Consider  the  situation.  It  is  perfectly  certain  that,  if 
the  leaders  of  the  Church  had  been  certified  that  the 
spiritual  jurisdiction  was  safe,  and  that  unedifying 
ministers  would  not  be  forced  upon  congregations,  they 
would  have  joyfully  remamed  in  the  Establishment.  It 
is  perfectly  certain  also,  that  m  this  debate  the  Prime 
Minister  and  the  first  Law  Officer  of  the  Crown  expressly 
declared  that  they  recognised  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of 
the  Church.  Sir  Eobert  assuredly  did  not  wish  to  break 
up  the  Establishment  in  order  to  force  unedifying  pre- 
sentees on  parishes.  Since  Job  cried  in  his  anguish  for 
a  daysman  to  come  between  God  and  him  and  enable 
them  to  understand  each  other,  there  had  never  been  an 
instance  in  which  a  mediator  was  so  much  wanted  to 
remove  the  misunderstandings,  the  suspicions,  the  hallu- 
cinations which  lay  like  a  malignant  spell  upon  both 
parties. 


THE  DEBATE  IN  THE  COMMONS.  281. 

A    Scotchman    thinks    of    Sir    Walter's   words,  wlieu 
Scotland's  chance  at  Flodden  was  flung  away, — 

"  Oh  for  one  hour  of  Wallace  wiglit, 
Or  well-skilled  Bruce  to  rule  the  fight !  " 

There  were  in  the  Convocation  nearly  half  a  dozen  men 
who  could  have  handled  the  Church's  business  with  tlie 
House  more  effectually  than  any  of  the  speakers. 
Imagination  pictures  the  impression  that  might  have 
been  made  by  a  few  words  from  royal  Chalmers.  What, 
he  might  have  asked,  had  they  taken  him  for  ?  Had  he 
ever,  in  all  those  years  when  he  had  defended  the  Church 
of  Scotland  as  the  paragon  of  ecclesiastical  Establishments, 
omitted  to  say  that  it  was  as  a  living,  a  spiritually  inde- 
pendent Church  that  lie  praised  her  ?  Had  he  been  an 
impudent  impostor,  or  a  wily  trickster,  or  a  theatrical 
histrio,  or  a  mere  rhapsodising  fool,  when,  in  the  presence 
of  nine  English  bishops  and  a  Prince  of  the  Blood,  he 
declared,  four  years  before,  in  London,  that  the  King  could 
not  put  his  foot  across  the  threshold  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  ?  The  Church  now  clamied,  as  essential  to 
Establishment, — for  she  did  not  now  demand  tlie  total 
abolition  of  patronage, — only  what  she  had  always  in 
essentials  claimed ;  and  she  had  never  asked  an  iota 
more  than  that  she  should  be  allowed  to  serve  Christ 
as  strenuously  in  connection  with  the  State  as  she  could 
serve  Him  if  she  were  not  in  connection  with  the  State. 
In  the  whole  course  of  her  history  she  had  never  been 
more  efficient  in  teaching  the  poor,  never  more  efficient 
in  preaching  the  gospel  to  all  classes,  than  during  the 
last  ten  years ;  and  for  this  she  was  to  be  disestablislied. 
Candlish,  whose  unparalleled  skill,  both  strategical  and 


282  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

tactical,  in  the  management  of  large  bodies  of  men,  had 
been  illustrated  in  the  Convocation,  was  probably  the 
likeliest  man  (for  Candlish  at  his  best  could  work 
miracles)  to  liave  presented  the  claim  of  the  Church  to 
the  House  of  Commons  so  convincingly,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  have  indicated  a  method  of  restoring  tranquillity 
so  practicable,  that  the  Disruption  might,  even  at  this  the 
eleventh  hour,  have  been  averted.  Not  only  could  Cand- 
lish, with  his  Aquinas  -  like  power  of  drawing  accurate 
distinctions  and  stating  them  with  exquisite  precision, 
have  cleared  up  misunderstandings  and  solved  enigmas, 
but  he  might,  with  his  marvellous  faculty  for  framing 
schemes  of  action  and  his  unexampled  velocity  in  out- 
lining them  in  resolutions,  have  suggested  to  Government 
a  plan  of  campaign. 

This,  in  the  pass  things  had  now  reached,  was  a  matter 
of  paramount  importance.  Peel's  references  to  the 
deposed  ministers  touched  the  crux  of  the  difficulty. 
Scotland  was  the  battlefield  of  two  sets  of  clergymen. 
One  set  obeyed  the  Church,  the  other  set  obeyed  the 
Civil  law.  The  Government  might  regret  having  to 
choose  between  the  two,  but  the  continuance  of  their 
battle  was  clearly  out  of  the  question.  Of  the  two,  the 
Government,  if  forced  to  make  a  choice,  would  be  shut 
up  to  stand  by  the  party  that  obeyed  the  Civil  law.  All 
that  the  Strathbogie  mutineers  and  those  who  sympathised 
with  them  liad  suffered  was  on  account  of  their  having, 
as  the  first  of  all  necessities,  obeyed  the  State.  Sir 
Kobert  Peel  might  pardonably  decide  that  it  was  better 
to  let  the  Evangelicals  leave  the  Cluirch,  than  to  see  the 
whole  Moderate  party,  or  even  a  large  proportion  of  that 


AN  IMA GINAR V  SPEE CH  BY  G UTHRIE.  283 

iparty,  not  only  thrust  out  of  the  Church,  but  thrust  out 
in  a  state  of  professional  degradation  and  disqualification. 

Candlish,  however,  was  the  man  who  could  have  shown 
the  Government  how  to  solve  the  problem  presented  by 
the  divided  Church.  He  had  publicly  said  that  he  did 
not  wish  to  see  the  Moderates  excluded.  Had  he  oljtained 
a  patient  hearing  from  the  House,  and  had  he  stated  the 
case  of  the  Church,  and  made  his  practical  suggestions, 
in  that  Demosthenic  language  of  his  which  needed  no 
other  ornamentation  than  the  running  glance  of  its 
electric  fire  along  the  keen  unerring  lines  of  its  logical 
distinctions,  a  change  might  have  passed  over  the 
situation. 

One  is  tempted,  since  the  audacity  of  even  in  imagina- 
tion trying  to  put  words  into  the  mouth  of  Candlish  is 
out  of  the  question,  to  fall  back  upon  Guthrie  as  the 
dramatically  extemporised  spokesman  of  the  Church 
before  the  House  of  Commons.  Not  Guthrie  the  florid 
pulpit  orator,  but  Guthrie  the  sound  strong  head  that 
always  instinctively,  putting  aside  irrelevancies,  trivial- 
ities, and  obscurations,  went  to  the  core  of  a  matter ; 
Guthrie  of  Arbirlot,  Guthrie  the  sympathetic  friend  and 
familiar  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  Guthrie 
whose  enchantmg  simplicity  and  cordial  humour  disarmed 
suspicion,  inspired  confidence,  and  never  on  one  of  a 
thousand  platforms  failed  to  appreciate  and  wm  his 
audience. 

Guthrie  is  supposed  to  Speak. 

It  is  naturally  gratifying  to  me  to  have  heard  the 
high  -  flown     praises     bestowed     by   successive    speakers 


284  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

upon  the  Clmrcli  of  Scotland.  Quite  a  garland  of 
tiowery  compliments  has  been  vouchsafed  her ;  but  I 
cannot  help  remembering  that  in  ancient  times,  creatures 
richly  adorned  with  garlands  have  been  led  to  sacrifice ; 
and  I  must  say  that,  when  the  eloquent  gentlemen 
passed  from  general  eulogies  on  the  Church  to  a  par- 
ticular consideration  of  her  claim,  they  changed  their 
tone.  Incredibility,  absurdity,  tyranny  beyond  that  of 
the  Papacy  before  the  Keformation,  are,  in  theii'  view, 
the  proper  terms  in  which  to  describe  the  position  she 
takes  up.  Now  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  gentlemen  of 
this  House  cherish  no  wish  to  inflict  wrong  either  upon 
the  Church  or  the  people  of  Scotland ;  I  have  the  firmest 
persuasion  that  the  Church  makes  no  demand  which  is 
not  both  just  and  simple ;  and  I  regard  it  therefore  as 
indubitable  that,  in  some  way  or  other,  a  fog,  a  haze  of 
misunderstanding,  is  the  source  of  all  the  mischief. 
Pardon  an  illustration  from  the  annals  of  the  sea.  Two 
noble  vessels  have  made  many  a  voyage  prosperously  and 
pleasantly  together.  Many  ports  have  "  exulted  at  the 
gleam  of  their  masts,"  and  at  the  wholesome  merchandise 
they  brought.  But  a  fog  crept  over  the  deep.  The 
treacherous  dusk,  worse  than  night's  honest  blackness, 
distorted  the  appearance  tliey  presented  to  each  other, 
caused  them  to  mistake  each  other  for  enemies,  to 
misinterpret  each  other's  signals,  to  run  out  their 
guns  against  each  other.  Gentlemen,  we  are  in  the 
fog.  It  is  lyjlit  that  is  wanted,  in  order  that  Church 
and  State  in  Scotland  may  resume  their  harmonious 
and  happy  co  -  operation  in  the  service  of  God  and 
man. 


AN  IMA  GINAR  V  SPEE CH  B  Y  GUTHRIE.  285 

The  head  of  Her  Majesty's  Government,  Sir  James 
Graham,  Sir  William  Follett,  and  every  English  gentle- 
man in  this  House,  must  be  held  to  know  that  the 
Confession  of  Faith  is  part  of  the  constitutional  law 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  No  man  disputes  that  state- 
ment. The  words  of  the  Confession  are  these :  "  The 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  King  and  Head  of  His  Church, 
hath  therein  appointed  a  government  in  the  hand 
of  Church  officers  distinct  from  the  Civil  Magistrate." 
Are  these  words  challenged  by  the  House  ?  If  so, 
there  is  an  end  of  the  question.  But  if  the  British 
I'arliament  is  unchallengeably  bound  to  maintain  the 
Confession  of  Faith,  then  we  can  understand  each  other. 
The  Premier  has  told  us  that  it  is  foreign  to  the  niten- 
tions  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  to  cancel  any  essential 
condition  of  the  hitherto  existing  alliance  between 
Cluu-ch  and  State  in  Scotland.  AVell,  then,  there  are 
no  words  in  the  language  that  could  more  exactly  define 
the  essential  condition  of  that  alliance  than  those  of 
the  Confession  of  Faith.  The  alliance  is  leased  upon  the 
recognition  by  the  Stiite  of  a  Church  government,  which 
is  characterised,  first,  as  "  therein  "  or  within  the  Church  ; 
secondly,  as  "  in  the  hand  of  Church  officers;"  and  thirdly, 
as  "  distinct  from  the  Civil  Magistrate."  I  now  ask.  Is 
the  Court  of  Session  a  Civil  Court  ?  It  is.  Can  the 
Court  of  Session,  then,  be  distinct  from  the  Court  of 
Session  ?  If  not,  it  cannot  be  the  government  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  I  might  ask  also  whether  the 
Lords  of  Session  are  "  Church  officers."  If  not,  they 
cannot  be  the  persons  to  have  the  government  of  the 
Church  in  their  hands.      Once  more, — to  leave  no  hole 


286       THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

of  evasion  unstopped, — I  ask,  would  any  straightforward 
man  look  upon  the  epithet  "  distinct,"  applied  to  the 
government  in  the  hand  of  "  Church  officers,"  as  satisfied 
and  fulfilled  by  the  stipulation  that  the  Civil  Court 
might,  by  enslaving  the  Church,  thus  convert  the  Church 
officers  into  Court  of  Session  officers  ? 

I  submit  that,  by  reasoning  as  simple,  as  clear,  and  as 
cogent  as  that  of  any  proposition  in  Euclid,  I  have 
proved  that  the  Court  of  Session  can  have  no  governing 
power  over  the  Church  of  Scotland.  And  I  will  thank 
the  House  to  observe  particularly  that  the  Confession  of 
Faith  is  part  of  the  law  of  the  land  for  Scotland, — 
embodied  in  the  Treaty  of  Union,  and  implied  in  the 
oath  of  allegiance. 

I  am  anxious  not  to  deviate  from  the  straight  road 
of  a  simple  honest  argument,  but  I  take  leave  to  inter- 
pose the  remark  that  the  enormity  and  solecism  of  our 
position,  if  we  are  indeed  a  parcel  of  cunning  hypocrites, 
bent  on  establishmg  a  spiritual  despotism,  are  greatly 
enhanced  by  the  pretensions  we  have  always,  as  ad- 
vocates of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  made  to  be  the 
all-round  upholders  of  law.  In  our  championship  of 
Establishments,  we  have  scouted  the  notion  that  there 
is  any  conflict  between  the  moral,  social,  political  law 
of  nations  and  the  spiritual  law  of  the  Church.  In- 
credibility for  incredibility,  it  is  surely  more  incredible 
that  hundreds  of  men  should  turn  theu'  life  and  character 
into  a  contradiction  and  a  lie,  than  that  two  or  three 
lawyers  should  have  taken  the  wrong  turn,  and,  having 
taken  it,  should  refuse  to  go  back.  A  crotchet,  a 
prejudice,  a  wu'e-drawn  metaphysical  idea  may  ensconce 


AN  IMA  GINAR  V  SPEECH  B  Y  GUTHRIE.  287 

itself  in  the  brain,  and  step  forth  robed  in  all  the  in- 
fallibility of  law.  A  small  nnmerical  majority  gives 
the  cue  to  the  profession,  and  thus  the  world  of  politics 
and  the  press  is  hitluenced,  "  the  whole  ear  of  Denmark 
is  abused,"  and  the  conclusion  is  lightly  arrived  at,  that 
the  clerical  fellows  are,  as  usual,  in  the  wrong.  It  may 
be  less  credible  that  three  lawyers  have  made  a  mis- 
take than  that  some  twice  three  hundred  clergymen,  one 
of  them  being  such  an  one  as  Dr.  Chalmers,  have  turned 
their  whole  existence  into  a  falsehood. 

Eesuming  the  main  course  of  my  observations,  I 
call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the  circumstances 
\mder  which  the  Court  of  Session  took,  as  I  say,  the 
wrong  turn.  The  patron.  Lord  Kinnoull,  presented  Mr. 
Young  to  the  parish  of  Auchterarder.  The  congrega- 
tion, by  an  all  but  unanimous  majority,  testified  their 
unwillingness  to  receive  him  as  their  pastor.  He  was 
therefore  rejected  by  the  Presbytery.  A  suit  was 
brought  into  the  Court  of  Session  with  a  view  to  putting 
the  Patronage  Act  in  force  in  Mr.  Young's  favour,  and 
the  Court  of  Session  decided  that  he  was  legally  entitled 
to  be  mmister  of  the  parish.  Up  to  this  point,  having 
it  as  my  object  to  discriminate  and  deal  with  none  but 
essentials,  I  assume  that  the  Court  of  Session  was  in 
the  right.  Property  had  been  applied  for ;  whatever 
else  was  craved,  property  was  clamied  ;  and  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Court  to  hear  all  claims  touching  property  is 
beyond  dispute.  But  it  appeared  that,  in  order  that 
Mr.  Young  might  be  put  in  possession  of  his  property 
in  the  regular  way,  he  required  to  be  ordained  pastor 
of  the  parish.      And   what   I   call  the   wrong  turn  was 


288  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.    . 

taken  by  the  Court  when  it  proceeded  to  command  and 
coerce  the  Church  to  ordain  Mr.  Young. 

Let  us  not  fall  back  into  mist.  We  are  in  no  danger 
if  we  keep  our  eyes  open.  Every  member  of  this 
House,  every  educated  man,  is  aware  that  ordination  to 
the  office  of  the  ministry  is  one  of  those  things  which 
in  all  ages  and  in  all  Churches  has  ranked  as  spiritual. 
The  Premier  knows  perfectly  that  ordination  is  a  spiritual 
matter,  and  that  it  must  be  included  in  that  government 
which  is  defined  in  the  Confession  of  Faith  as  "  distinct 
from  the  Civil  Magistrate."  Eeminding  him,  then,  of 
his  statement  as  to  the  desire  of  the  Government  to 
preserve  all  the  essentials  of  the  alliance  between 
Church  and  State  in  Scotland,  I  call  upon  him  to  admit 
that  the  Lords  of  Session,  when  they  reached  this  point, 
ought  to  have  paused  and  said,  "  We  cannot  govern  the 
Church,  for  we  are  not  '  therein,'  we  are  not  '  Church 
officers,'  and  we  are  not  '  distinct  from  the  Civil  Magis- 
trate.'"  Now  the  Court  of  Session,  instead  of  having 
respect  to  a  government  "distinct"  from  its  own,  usurped 
the  right  to  coerce  or  absorb  that  government,  and  to  treat 
the  "  Church  officers,"  who  alone  could  exercise  it,  as  if 
they  were  its  own  servants.  By  so  doing  it  has  violated 
the  Union.  Its  conduct  has  resulted  in  a  comprehensive 
interruption  of  the  government  of  the  Church. 

The  method  of  the  Court  of  Session  has  been  the  most 
contemptuous  that  could  have  been  adopted.  Their  Lord- 
ships have  simply  vjnorcd  the  existence  of  a  "  distmct " 
ecclesiastical  government,  and  proceeded  on  the  tacit 
assumption  that  it  was  sheer  affectation,  or  farce,  or 
liypocrisy,  on  the  part  of  the  "  Church  officers,"  to  object. 


AN  IMAGINARY  SrEECH  B V  GUTHRIE.  289 

on  spiritual  or  conscientious  grounds,  to  ordain,  depose, 
or  admit  to  full  ministerial  brotherhood,  as  the  Court  of 
Session  pleased  to  command.  Let  no  one  delude  himself 
for  a  moment  by  supposing  that  the  Lords  of  Session  debate 
with  us  as  to  the  line  of  demarcation  between  spirituals 
and  temporals.  They  do  not  say  what  is  spiritual,  if 
ordination  and  deposition  are  7ioL  They  simply  ignore 
any  government  "  distinct  from  the  Civil  Magistrate ; "  and 
if  the  officers  of  that  government  come  between  their 
decrees  and  temporals)  and  refuse  to  be  coerced,  they 
inflict  severe  punishment.  That  is  all.  If  the  House 
look  into  our  Claim  of  Rights,  they  will  find  that,  along 
the  whole  line  of  Church  government,  the  authority  of  the 
Church  is  struck  down.  It  is  taken  out  of  the  hands  of 
"  Church  officers "  in  the  sense  of  officers  obeying  the 
Church,  and  put  into  the  hand  of  officers  disobeying  the 
Church  and  obejing  the  Court  of  Session.  The  direction 
of  the  Confession  of  Faith  is  reversed. 

Is  this  what  the  honourable  Baronet  calls  preserving 
the  essentials  of  the  alliance  between  Church  and  State 
in  Scotland  ?  The  statute  of  patronage  is  not  alleged  to 
have  repealed  the  Confession  of  Faith.  The  Civil  Court 
could  not  legally  take  the  place  of  a  government,  or  even 
instruct  and  correct  a  government,  defined  in  a  funda- 
mental muniment  of  the  constitution  verhatim  ct  literatim 
as  "  distinct "  from  its  own.  The  most  gifted  man,  and 
perhaps  the  shrewdest  practical  lawyer,  among  the  law 
Lords  told  them  that  they  were  utterly  without  jurisdic- 
tion in  ecclesiastical  matters ;  and  the  fact  was  illustrated 
by  their  attempting  to  press  Church  officers  into  their 
service  and  punish  them  for  refusing  to  be  enslaved. 
19 


290  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Vainly  did  the  Church  otfer  to  let  the  Court  dispose  of 
the  property.  The  Lords  might  fairly  allege  that  the 
Patronage  Act,  interpreted  by  common  sense,  meant  the 
stipend  and  the  duties  to  be  assigned  to  one  and  the  same 
man.  We  do  not  deny  that.  By  leaving  the  parish 
duties  to  be  regulated  by  the  Church  and  the  people, 
and  giving  the  money  to  the  patron's  man,  division  and 
dissension  would  be  fostered  in  parishes.  The  Church 
never  contemplated  this  as  a  feasible,  permanent  arrange- 
ment. But  she  would  submit  to  such  an  arrangement 
rather  than  dissolve  the  alliance  with  the  State.  She 
would  not  go  out,  though  stripped  of  her  endowments. 
But  since  she  scrupulously  respected  the  Court  of 
Session  in  its  own  sphere,  it  was  conspicuously  blame- 
worthy in  the  Court  of  Session  to  vault  completely  out 
of  its  own  sphere  and  begin  a  course  of  disdauiful 
domineering  in  the  spiritual  province, — the  sphere  ex- 
pressly marked  off'  for  the  "  Church  officers."  Eepeating, 
then,  that  the  essential,  all  -  comprehendmg  grievance 
complained  of  by  the  Church  of  Scotland  is,  that  the 
Court  of  Session  has  transferred  to  itself  the  govern- 
ment declared  by  the  Confession  of  Faith  to  be  distinctive 
of  the  Church,  I  proceed  to  ask  what  is  that  wrong — 
surely  a  monstrous  one — in  redressing  which  the  Court 
of  Session  thrusts  itself  into  a  sphere  from  which  "  the 
Civil  Magistrate  "  is  peremptorOy  excluded. 

Church  patronage,  no  one  hearing  me  will  dispute, 
possesses  the  nature  of  a  trust.  The  property  involved 
is  held  in  trust  for  the  spiritual  benefit  of  parishioners. 
The  Church  of  Scotland  has  always  professed  a  supreme 
regard   for    the   spiiitual   interests  of    parishioners,  and. 


AN  IMA  GINAR  Y  SPEECH  B  Y  GUTHRIE.  291 

nearly  ten  years  ago,  embodied,  in  the  Veto  Act,  the 
principle  that  no  one  should  be  ordained  pastor  of  a 
parish  if  a  majority  of  the  male  heads  of  families,  being 
communicants,  disapproved  of  him  on  spiritual  grounds. 
The  Church  thus  associated  the  parishioners  with  herself 
in  the  guardianship  of  their  spiritual  interests.  She 
secured  that  the  men  who  ministered  to  them  spirit- 
ually, who  lived  among  them  as  soul-healers,  friends, 
counsellors,  should  not  be  ordained  as  their  pastors  against 
their  will.  The  will  of  the  people  had  been  anciently 
expressed  in  the  "  call."  This  had  been  allowed  to  fall 
too  much  into  abeyance,  and  for  a  long  period  it  had 
been  overborne,  but  it  had  never  been  abolished ;  and 
that  party  in  the  Church  which,  after  long  struggling 
as  a  minority,  has  in  the  present  century  become  the 
majority,  always  contended  that  the  call  was  consti- 
tutionally Presbyterian,  and  that  patronage  was  the 
foreign  and  questionable  element.  By  the  Veto  Act 
the  Church  reinforced  the  call.  To  whatever  extent 
she  may  have  fallen  short  in  the  past,  she  thus  intimated 
to  all  the  world  that  it  was  with  her  a  vital  principle 
to  ordain  no  minister  to  a  parish  against  the  will  and 
consent  of  the  parishioners.  If  the  Premier  considers 
this  determination  incompatible  with  the  essential  con- 
ditions of  the  alliance  between  Church  and  State  in 
Scotland,  then  we  must  quit  the  Establishment.  If  the 
call  remains,  as  Lord  Brougham  said,  as  completely 
a  nonentity  as  the  wagging  of  the  champion's  horse's 
tail  at  a  coronation,  the  Establishment  must  be  broken 
up.  Through  many  a  dark  day  the  people  of  Scotland 
have   stood    by   the   Church,   and    the   Church   will  now 


292  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

stand  by  the  people.  But  let  the  House  recollect  that 
the  Veto  Act  did  not  abolish  patronage,  that  in  the 
great  majority  of  cases  the  patrons  were  satisfied  with 
the  Act,  and  that  the  Crown  patronage  was  worked 
smoothly  in  connection  with  it.  The  Church  went  rather 
further  than  a  majority  of  three  Lords  of  Session  held 
she  was  legally  entitled  to  go  in  securing  the  spiritual 
interests  of  parishioners,  and  for  this  the  Court  of 
Session,  regardless  of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  has  un- 
hinged her  whole  system  of  government.  At  this 
moment  the  Church  cannot,  except  under  severe  penalties, 
depose  ministers  guilty  of  theft ;  proceed  against  mmisters 
accused  of  fraud  and  swindling ;  send  ministers  into 
particular  districts  to  preach. 

I  need  scarcely  remark  that,  if  the  paralysis  to 
which  the  Church  is  at  present  condemned  must  con- 
tinue, we  could  never,  shoidd  we  remain  in  the  Establish- 
ment, look  the  Dissenters  of  Scotland  again  in  the  face. 
We  always  told  them  that,  unless  we  could  serve  our 
Lord  Christ  as  well  in  the  Establishment  as  out  of  it,  we 
should  not  be  in  it ;  and  if  the  "  distinct "  government 
in  the  Church  "  in  the  hand  of  Church  officers  "  is  at 
an  end,  we  must  tell  them  that  the  State  Church  in 
Scotland  has  proved  a  failure.  The  right  honourable 
Baronet  has  reflected  in  most  vehement  terms  on  the 
severity  of  discipline  with  which  the  Churcli  has  visited 
those  of  her  clergy  who,  directly  disobeying  her,  have 
made  themselves  the  instruments  and  officers  of  the 
Court  of  Session.  He  carefully  points  out  that  he  dis- 
allows tlie  indirect  effects  of  the  discipline.  "  It  is," 
he  says,  "  the  degradation  of   character  to  which  these 


AN  IMA  GINAK  V  SPEE CH  B  V  GUTHRIE.  293 

men  are  subjected  that  most  affects  me."  He  looks 
with  friendlier  trust  upon  non  -  established  denomina- 
tions. Of  Koman  Catholics,  Wesleyans,  Congrega- 
tionalists,  he  says,  "  Their  right,  so  far  as  voluntary 
jurisdiction  is  concerned,  is  quite  supreme,  and  we  do 
not  attempt  to  interfere  with  it."  But  a  Eoman  Catholic 
priest,  when  deposed,  is  affected  by  the  "  degradation  of 
character"  as  inevitably  as  a  Presbyterian  clergyman. 
The  honourable  Baronet  must  think  very  meanly  of  us, 
and  believe  us  to  think  very  meanly  of  ourselves,  if 
he  expects  us  to  ordain  and  depose  at  the  bidding  of 
the  Court  of  Session,  when  the  Voluntaries  ordain  and 
depose  in  the  exercise  of  their  own  discipline. 

No  doubt  the  Premier  may  insist  that  the  men  we 
have  put  under  discipline  declare  that  they  have  obeyed 
the  law  of  the  land.  But  for  every  minister  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  the  Confession  of  Faith  is  indisput- 
ably the  law  of  the  land.  By  their  ordination  vows 
our  ministers  have  expressly  accepted  and  sworn  to  that 
ordinance  by  which  the  government  of  the  Churcli  of 
Scotland  is  declared  in  the  Confession  of  Faith  to  be 
"  distinct "  from  the  Civil  Magistrate.  Is  it  not  really 
an  insult  to  the  human  understanding  that  men  who  had 
vowed  to  obey  a  government  in  the  Church,  "  distinct " 
from  that  of  the  Civil  Magistrate,  should  excuse  them- 
selves by  simply  reiterating  that  they  had  obeyed  the 
Civil  Magistrate, — that  is  to  say,  by  confessing  and  recon- 
fessing  their  fault. 

But  the  Premier  need  not  be  haunted  by  a  spectral 
apprehension  of  being  compelled,  in  case  of  reconciliation 
with   the   Church,   to   witness    the    expulsion    from   her 


294  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

borders  of  the  Strathbogie  ministers  and  all  who  have 
sympathised  with  them.  The  actually  deposed  ministers 
are  but  a  handful.  If  they  express  contrition, — if  they 
manifest  a  sincere  desire  to  return  to  the  arms  of  the 
Church, — then  it  is,  to  say  the  least,  highly  probable 
that  they  will  be  restored.  Dr.  Candlish,  expressing  the 
general  sentunent,  has  publicly  declared  that  he  has  no 
wish  to  see  the  party  opposed  to  us — the  Moderates — 
driven  out  of  the  Church.  It  is,  moreover,  a  fact  that 
the  Moderates  have  never  repudiated  the  spiritual  juris- 
diction. They  profess  merely  to  be  in  a  difficulty  as  to 
its  application.  And  it  has  at  all  times  been  a  principle 
and  rule  of  our  Presbyterian  discipline  to  judge  overt 
acts  and  uttered  words,  not  to  pry  into  motives,  or  to 
pretend  to  see  what  is  visible  to  the  eye  of  God  alone. 

I  suggest  that  a  provisional  arrangement  should  be 
formed  on  the  basis  of  resolutions  of  the  House  to  the 
following  effect: — 1.  That  there  is  not  any  intention  to 
invade  the  independent  spuitual  jurisdiction  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  as  defined  in  the  Confession  of  Faith.  2.  That 
immediate  legislation  is  contemplated  with  a  view  to 
obviate  any  detrmient  or  disadvantage  in  temporals,  to 
clergymen  of  the  Church,  on  account  of  their  recognising, 
submitting  to,  and  giving  full  effect  to,  the  spuitual 
jurisdiction.  3.  That  legislation  will  be  undertaken 
with  a  view  to  securing,  in  the  settlement  of  pastors, 
that  the  property  placed  in  trust  of  patrons  in  Scotland 
for  the  spiritual  benefit  of  the  people,  shall  be  assigned 
to  no  minister  against  the  will,  expressed  for  purposes 
of  edification,  of  the  parishioners.  Grant  this,  and 
separation  will  be  averted. 


AN  IMA  GIN  A  R  V  SPEECH  B  V  GUTHRIE.  295 

And  now,  to  close  all,  I  shall  make  two  short  appeals. 
In  the  first  place,  I  entreat  honourable  gentlemen  not  to 
allow  themselves  to  be  mfluenced  by  the  earwig  whispers, 
the  stabs  in  the  dark,  of  those  who  say  that  only  a  handful 
of  head-strong,  hare-brained  men — interested  demagogues 
wanting  to  pose  as  martyrs — will  in  any  case  leave  the 
Establishment.  It  were  better  to  make  a  noble  mistake 
— to  trust  too  generously,  too  bravely,  too  magnanim- 
ously— than  to  estimate  human  nature  so  vilely.  To 
approach  a  member  of  your  honourable  House  wdth 
these  insmuations  and  suspicions  is  to  insult  him. 

In  the  second  place,  addressing  myself  specially  to  the 
English  members  of  the  House,  I  ask  them  not  to  treat 
this  question  with  impatient  indifference  as  a  mere  alien 
and  Scotch  affair.  It  is  their  duty — they  will  not  in 
terms  deny  it — to  extend  to  Scotland,  which  at  the 
Union  became  one  with  England,  the  same  care  and 
consideration  which  are  due  to  England.  Scotland 
maintained  her  national  independence  against  England 
for  ages.  She  entered  the  Union,  on  the  faith  of 
England,  as  a  free  and  independent  nation.  The  hostile 
feeling  of  the  earlier  tune  has  given  place  to  a  senti- 
ment of  the  warmest  loyalty  to  our  common  realm. 
There  was  a  day  when  the  voice  of  Scotchmen  attracted 
the  notice  of  Europe,  by  proclaiming  that,  while  a 
hundred  Scotchmen  remained  alive,  and  there  was  a 
Scottish  hill  on  which  to  plant  their  feet,  they  would  not 
be  reigned  over  by  a  King  of  England.  It  is  now 
nearer  the  truth  to  say  that,  while  a  hundred  Scotchmen 
remain  alive,  the  imperial  Hag  will  not  be  rent  asunder  or 
the  head  of  England  brought  low.      Never,  then,  let  it  be 


296  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

alleged  that,  on  this  most  intensely  Scottish  of  all  Scotch 
questions,  in  which  petitions  presented  to  your  House 
prove  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  worthiest  people  in 
Scotland  to  be  supremely  interested,  the  English  members 
of  Parliament,  overruling  the  judgment  of  the  Scottish 
members,  and  refusing  to  pause  and  consider,  precipitated 
the  break-up  of  the  Scottish  Establishment. 

Alas  !  there  was  no  Guthrie  present  in  the  House  of 
Commons,— no  Chalmers,  no  Candhsh,  no  Cunningham, 
no  Buchanan,  no  Hugh  Miller, — to  plead  the  cause  of 
Scotland  and  her  Church.  In  the  dusk  of  suspicion, 
misunderstanding,  vague  apprehension,  a  great  wrong  was 
done.  Out  of  287  members,  only  75  voted  with  Mr. 
Fox  Maule.  In  the  mmority  voted  25  Scotchmen,  in 
the  majority  12, —  two  to  one  true  to  Church  and 
country.  Never  did  the  arrogant  and  icy  indifference, 
so  narrow,  so  ungenial,  so  unjust,  so  insular,  that  shows 
Englishmen  at  their  very  worst,  more  signally  display 
itself.  In  the  records  of  the  British  Parliament  it  might 
be  difficult  to  find  a  more  discreditable  exhibition. 


CHAPTEE  XXXIV. 
^^arx^  <E>o^!  f^eg  come,  f^eg  come! 

rpHE  Claim  of  Eights  had  been  presented,  the  House 
-'-  of  Commons  had  been  appealed  to,  the  Government 
had  been  as  inexorable  as  a  marble  Jove.  And  yet  the 
Church  made  no  sign.  Over  the  face  of  society,  like  the 
moan  of  a  malarious  wind,  crept  the  vile  hope,  the  mean 
suspicion,  that  the  Presbyterian  party  would  play  false. 
"  They  are  not  out  yet !  Good,  sympathetic  people,  who 
had  floods  of  tears  ready  to  shed  on  the  occasion,  may 
bottle  them  up,  not  forgettmg  to  cork  them  well,  for  they 
must  stand  long  before  they  be  needed." — Thus  wrote  one 
who  ought  to  have  known  his  countrymen  better.  Sooth 
to  say,  cause  had  been  given,  though  never  by  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  for  questioning  the  fibre  of  the  clerical  con- 
science. The  ghastliest  of  all  the  spectacles  of  the  French 
Eevolution  was  that  of  troop  after  troop  of  clergymen 
appearing  before  the  Convention  to  announce  that  their 
profession  of  religion  had  been  a  sham.  The  uneasy 
sceptic,  the  man  who  knows  in  his  heart  that  he  is  not  at 
peace  with  God,  is  comforted  beyond  expression  by  what 
strengthens  his  conviction  that  all  conscience  is  a  lie,  a 


298  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

nonentity,  an  echo  from  no  Divine  Voice,  a  thing  not  to 
be  taken  account  of  among  the  realities  of  the  world. 
And  so,  during  the  weeks  preceding  the  meeting  of  the 
General  Assembly, — on  the  18th  of  May  1843, — the 
whole  Satanic  school  of  treasonous  theology,  and  atheistic 
philosophy,  and  mere  cynical  worldliness,  continued  to 
mock  and  moan. 

But  the  great  heart  of  Scotland  knew  better.  Scott's 
romantic  town,  Wordsworth's  peerless  Edinburgh 
throned  on  crags,  knew  that  a  day  to  be  remembered 
was  about  to  rise  upon  her  guardian  hills  and  clustered 
dwellings.  The  excitement  was  intense,  and  from  earliest 
morning  there  was  a  stir  in  the  streets.  Never  had  the 
gathering  at  Holyrood  to  meet  the  Queen's  Commissioner, 
who  again  was  the  Marquis  of  Bute,  been  larger  or  more 
distinguished.  It  was  remarked,  as  a  pathetically 
felicitous  coincidence,  that  the  portrait  of  William  of 
Orange,  which  had  hung  in  the  reception  room,  and 
opposite  to  which  Lord  Bute  took  up  his  position,  fell 
from  the  wall.  It  was  in  no  small  measure  due  to  the 
common  sense  and  honest  firmness  of  William  that  no 
attempt  had  been  made,  at  the  time  of  his  accession,  to 
foist  some  ecclesiastical  compromise,  or  at  least  to  impose 
some  shadow  of  Anglican  Erastianism,  upon  the  people 
of  Scotland,  instead  of  giving  them  their  own  genuine 
Church.  It  was  appropriately,  therefore,  that  a  voice 
cried  out,  "  There  goes  the  Revolution  Settlement." 

Witli  extraordinary  pomp,  through  crowded  streets, 
the  procession  moved  to  St.  Giles's  Church.  There,  for 
the  last  time,  the  lineal  descendants  of  those  who  rose 
in  the  rear  of  Jenny  Geddes's  stool  to  begin  a  revolution 


THANK  GOD  !    THE  V  COME,   THE  V  COME  !        299 

that  changed  the  course  of  Britain's  history,  met  around 
Dr.  Welsh,  the  retiring  Moderator,  one  of  their  own  most 
resohite  leaders,  to  hear  him  preach.  He  told  them  that 
the  eyes  of  Christendom  were  upon  them,  but  that  this 
was  a  small  matter  compared  with  that  of  getting  their 
feet  upon  the  adamant  of  conscience,  and  feeling  them- 
selves in  the  presence  of  their  Divine  Head, 

It  was  between  two  and  three  in  the  afternoon  when 
Dr.  Welsh  took  the  chair  as  Moderator  of  Assembly 
in  St.  Andrew's  Church.  A  few  minutes  later.  Her 
Majesty's  Commissioner  entered.  The  great  church 
was  filled  from  floor  to  ceiling.  Never  perhaps  in  its 
history  had  the  heart  of  Edinburgh  been  more  deeply 
touched,  its  brain  more  keenly  stirred.  The  cause  had 
always  been  in  some  peculiar  sense  the  cause  of  Edin- 
burgh, a  town  whose  fine  intellectuality,  nurtured  on 
learning,  law,  literature,  science,  and  theology,  elicited 
the  keen  admiration  of  Charles  Dickens.  The  intel- 
lectuality of  Edinburgh  was  now  raised  to  highest  temper 
by  glow  of  religious  emotion ;  and  the  vast  audience,  in 
the  church  and  in  the  street,  knowmg  that,  in  logic  as 
well  as  religion,  the  ministers  of  Christ  had  on  this 
occasion  the  advantage  of  the  lawyers,  vexed  with  no 
faithless  fear  lest  the  Scottish  clergy  might  fail  m  moral 
heroism,  expected  breathlessly  but  exultantly  the  decisive 
moment. 

Having  opened  the  meethig  with  prayer,  the  Moderator, 
whose  manner  we  may  realise  as  an  unpressive  combina- 
tion of  solemnity  and  mtrepidity,  made  the  announcement 
that,  in  consequence  of  an  infringement  on  the  liberties 
of  the  Church,  they  could   not  constitute  the  General 


300  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCO  TLA  hW. 

Assembly,  and  he  would  read  a  protest  embodying 
reasons  for  declining  further  proceedings.  The  document 
in  question  was  signed  by  203  ministers  and  elders, 
members  of  the  House.  It  consisted  of  a  brief  but 
substantial  summary  of  the  Claim  of  Eights,  with  the 
all-important  addition  that  the  Legislature,  by  refusing  to 
concede  the  Claim,  or  even  to  take  it  into  full  and  fair 
consideration,  had  "  recognised  and  fixed  "  conditions  of 
Establishment  which  were  subversive  of  the  spiritual 
jurisdiction  of  the  Church.  Having  made  good,  by  a 
sufficient  number  of  irrefragable  facts,  this  position,  the 
protesters  declare  it  to  be  their  duty  to  separate,  in  a 
way  of  peace  and  order,  from  the  Establishment,  which 
in  its  constitutional  verity  they  love  and  prize,  carrying 
with  them  the  Standards  of  the  Church,  ceasing  in  no 
whit  to  be  the  Church,  but  "  enforced  "  to  rupture  of  the 
State  connection  by  "  interference  with  conscience,  the 
dishonour  done  to  Christ's  crown,  and  the  rejection  of  His 
sole  and  supreme  authority  as  King  in  His  Church." 

The  reading  ended,  Dr.  Welsh  laid  the  protest  on  the 
table  of  the  Assembly,  turned  to  Her  Majesty's  Commis- 
sioner, "  who  rose  in  evident  and  deep  emotion,"  and 
bowed.  It  was  a  courteous  but  resolute  farewell.  The 
Church  of  Scotland,  in  the  person  of  her  Moderator, 
handed  back  to  the  State  that  property  which  she  could 
no  longer  retain  with  due  regard  to  her  duties  to  those 
Scottish  parishioners  for  whose  spiritual  benefit  it  had 
been  confided  to  her,  and  without  surrendering  that 
spiritual  jurisdiction  which,  as  part  of  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church,  she  possessed  from  Christ  her  Head.  He  moved 
calmly  towards  the  door. 


THANK  GOD  !    THE  Y  COME,   THE  Y  COME  !        301 

Chalmers  had  been  standing  immediately  on  Welsh's 
left.  A  thousand  eyes  had  been  on  him  as  the  protest 
was  being  read,  and  it  was  observed  that  there  was  about 
him  a  look  of  dreammess  and  abstraction.  Was  he,  in 
that  supreme  hour,  thinking  of  the  picturesque  manses 
and  manse-gardens  of  Scotland,  or  of  the  nine  prelates 
and  the  Prince  of  the  Blood  that  had  welcomed  him  in 
London,  so  lately,  as  a  defender  of  Church  Establish- 
ments ?  Suddenly,  when  Welsh  began  to  move,  he  awoke 
to  the  present,  and  followed  him  with  the  air  of  one 
impatient  to  be  gone.  Dr.  Gordon,  Dr.  Macdonald,  of 
Fermtosh,  rose  and  went  after  Chalmers.  Another,  and 
another,  and  gradually  whole  benches,  moved  away. 
Intense  mterest  pervaded  the  vast  audience.  Many, 
both  men  and  women,  were  weeping ;  but  the  tears  were 
of  pride,  of  exultation,  of  inexpressible  joy.  When  the 
head  of  the  column  reached  the  open  air,  when  the  crowd 
recognised  the  familiar  but  loved  and  honoured  figures  of 
Chalmers,  Gordon,  Cunningham,  Guthrie,  Candlish, — these 
and  so  many  others, — then  a  shout,  "  They  come,  they 
come  !     Thank  God,  they  come  ! "  rang  through  the  air. 

Dividmg  spontaneously  to  receive  the  column  of  Pres- 
byters as  they  advanced,  the  great  multitude  escorted 
them  down  the  long  slope  of  the  hill,  looking  across 
the  Firth  of  Forth  to  Fife  and  the  Highlands,  toward 
Tanfield  Hall,  Canonmills,  which  had  been  prepared  for 
their  reception.  About  four  hundred  clergymen  had 
withdrawn  from  St.  Andrew's  Church,  and  m  the  course 
of  the  next  day  the  number  of  those  who  relinquished 
the  dignities  and  endowment  of  Establishment  had  risen 
to   nearly   five    hundred.      "  We   did   not,"  said  Guthrie, 


302  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

"  come  out  a  small  and  scattered  band ;  but,  on  the  day 
of  the  Disruption,  burst  out  of  St.  Andrew's  Church  as  a 
river  bursts  from  a  glacier, — a  river  at  its  birth.  In 
numbers,  in  position,  in  wealth,  as  well  as  in  piety,  our 
Church,  I  may  say,  was  full  grown  on  the  day  it  was 
born.  Above  all,  and  next  to  the  prayers  that  sanctified 
our  cause,  we  were  followed  by  a  host  of  countrymen, 
whose  enthusiasm  had  been  kindled  at  the  ashes  of 
martyrs,  and  who  saw  in  our  movement  but  another 
phase  of  the  grand  old  days  that  won  Scotland  her  fame, 
and  made  her  a  name  and  a  praise  in  the  whole  earth." 

So  the  mockers  and  the  moaners,  the  cynics,  the 
sceptics,  and  the  whole  Satanic  school  of  critics, — those 
true  sinners  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  blaspheme 
the  Divine  gleam  of  moral  heroism  when  it  appears 
among  men, — were  in  the  wrong.  It  is  roughly  estimated 
that  in  annual  income  the  ministers  of  the  Free  Church 
surrendered  £100,000.  But  it  will  be  readily  admitted 
that,  even  when  the  large  addition  that  falls  to  be  made  to 
this  on  account  of  glebes  and  manses  has  been  reckoned, 
the  most  difficult  part  of  the  sacrifice,  as  involving  the 
rupture  of  dear  and  tender  associations,  and  the  forfeiture 
of  cherished  dignity,  will  remain  to  be  counted.  The  act 
has  been  recognised  by  all  generous  and  candid  observers 
as  a  piece  of  honest  adherence  to  principle,  the  simple 
heroism  of  truth  and  worth,  the  matching  of  profession 
with  performance.  On  this  ground  it  was  looked  upon 
with  proud  sympathy  by  Jeffrey,  whose  true-hearted 
patriotism  led  hmi  both  to  do  justice  to  his  native 
Church  at  every  stage  in  the  conflict,  and  to  affirm,  as 
he  witnessed  the  Disruption,  that  such  a  spectacle  could 


THANK  GOD  !    THEY  COME,   THEY  COME  !        803 

have  been  seen  only  in  his  native  land.  Caiiyle,  in 
those  melancholy  years  when  his  visionary  optimism  was 
darkening  into  despair,  may  have  let  some  sneers  escape 
him  about  the  Free  Church,  but  withm  ten  years  of  the 
Disruption  he  signalised  it  as  the  best  bit  of  moral 
performance  that  had  been  transacted  in  his  tune.  Mr. 
Justm  MacCarthy  has  generously  honoured  it  in  his 
eloquent  and  admirable  history  of  the  Victorian  Epoch. 

And  Macaulay,  no  prejudiced,  and  surely  a  well- 
informed  witness,  pronounced  in  these  words  his  judg- 
ment as  to  which  of  the  Assemblies,  the  departing  or 
the  remaining,  represented  the  true  Church  of  Scotland. 
"  Suppose  that  we  could  call  up  Carstairs ;  that  we  could 
call  up  Boston,  the  author  of  the  Fourfold  State ;  that  we 
could  relate  to  them  the  history  of  the  ecclesiastical 
revolutions  which  have,  since  their  time,  taken  place  in 
Scotland ;  and  that  we  could  then  ask  them,  '  Is  the 
Estiiblished  Church,  or  is  the  Free  Church,  identical  with 
the  Church  which  existed  at  the  time  of  the  Union  ? ' 
Is  it  not  quite  certaui  what  their  answer  would  be  ? 
They  would  say,  '  Our  Church,  the  Church  which  you 
promised  to  mahitain  unalterable,  was  not  the  Church 
whicli  you  (the  legislators  of  Great  Britain)  protect,  but 
the  Church  which  you  oppress.  Our  Church  was  the 
Church  of  Chalmers  and  Brewster,  not  the  Church  of 
Bryce  and  Muir.'" 

It  is  related  that  when  the  movement  to  follow  Welsh 
and  Chalmers  began  in  St.  Andrew's  Church,  Kobertson, 
of  Ellon,  the  ablest  and  at  the  same  time  the  most 
respected  and  earnest  among  the  Moderates,  rose  from 
his  place,  took  his   station  near  the  door,  and  watched 


304  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

with  anxious  face  what  was  taking  place.  When  he 
saw  that  the  great  body  of  those  men  who  had  been  the 
light  of  the  Church  were  actually  departmg,  the  blood,  it 
is  said,  left  his  face  and  he  became  pale  with  sorrow.  It 
was  a  nobler  demeanour  than  if  he  had  looked  with  cynical 
pride  or  harsh  resentment  upon  his  retreating  antagonists. 
It  was  a  tacit  but  eloquent  acknowledgment  that  the  men 
who  were  going  had  been  no  ignoble  opponents,  and  that 
their  departure  was  a  deep  loss  to  the  Establishment. 
Let  the  figure  of  Eobertson,  as  he  at  that  hour  appeared, 
stand  for  a  symbol  of  the  willingness  of  all  that  is  best 
in  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland  to  greet  the  day 
when  the  Himsy  partitions  that  still  stand  between  the 
sections  of  the  whole  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  land 
shall  be  removed.  If  not  in  theory,  then  in  practice,  all 
that  the  fathers  and  founders  of  the  Free  Church  asked 
on  behalf  of  the  Establishment  has,  through  their  con- 
tendings,  through  sacrifices  that  were,  for  them,  the  very 
cracking  of  the  heartstrings,  been  granted.  They  want 
no  thanks  from  their  successors.  They  seek  no  compli- 
ments, no  detailed  endorsement  of  their  proceedings ;  but, 
even  as  they  stand  with  their  King  around  the  throne  of 
God,  they  ask  to  see,  as  the  result  and  reward  of  their 
sacred  passion,  all  branches  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
ranged  under  one  banner,  and  tliat  lianner  inscribed  with 
the  Crown  Eights  of  the  Redeemer. 


CHAPTEK  XXXV. 

X^EFOEE  following  Chalmers  and  his  column  into  the 
-^-^  hall  at  Canonmills,  we  may  cast  one  glance  on  the 
truly  miserable  attempt,  or  pretext  at  an  attempt,  made 
by  Sir  James  Graham  and  the  Government,  when  the 
eleventh  hour  had  struck,  to  avert  the  separation. 

The  Queen's  letter  to  the  Assembly  was  found,  on 
being  opened,  to  contain  the  following  sentences :  "  The 
Church  of  Scotland,  occupying  its  true  positi<m  in  friendly 
alliance  with  the  State,  is  justly  entitled  to  expect  the 
aid  of  Parliament  in  removing  any  doul)ts  which  may 
have  arisen  with  respect  to  the  right  construction  of  tlie 
statutes  relating  to  the  admission  of  ministers.  You  may 
safely  confide  in  the  wisdom  of  Parliament ;  and  we  shall 
readily  give  our  assent  to  any  measure  which  the  Legis- 
lature may  pass  for  the  purpose  of  securing  to  the  people 
the  full  privilege  of  objection,  and  to  the  Church  judica- 
tories the  exclusive  right  of  judgment." 

Had  this  declaration  and  this  promise  l)een  made  in 
good  time  and  in  good  faith,  and  with  a  candid  desire  to 
respect  the   spiritual  independence  of  the  Church,  some 


306  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

good  result  might  have  ensued.  But  it  seems  impossible 
for  any  one  who  has  sufficiently  followed  the  conflict  to 
know  its  catchwords,  its  pitfalls,  its  openings  for  that 
interminable  hair-splitting  which  almost  drove  Candlish 
frantic,  to  read  these  words — the  mature  fruits  of  Sir 
James  Graham's  genius — without  feelmg  that,  brought 
forward  at  this  time,  they  were  cruelly  frivolous.  There 
was  not  an  ordinarily  clever  and  patriotic  schoolboy 
in  Edinburgh — the  statement  is  made  with  the  utmost 
deliberation — who,  upon  coming  to  the  word  "  objection," 
might  not  have  cried,  "  Objection, — privilege  of  objection, 
— why,  that  brings  back  the  old  question,  Is  the  objection 
reasonable  or  unreasonable  ?  and  you  may  split  haii's 
about  that  for  ever." 

More  subtle  is  the  comment,  and  yet  not  trivial  or 
captious,  that  the  last  words  of  our  quotation,  which 
constitute,  in  fact,  the  offer  of  a  bribe  to  the  clergy,  in 
form  of  power  over  the  people,  if  only  they  will  accept 
them,  as  parochial  serfs,  from  the  State,  are  pitiful.  Not 
possesshig  the  gift  of  prophecy,  the  ministers  could  not 
tell  l)ut  their  successors  might  tyrannise  over  the  people, 
as  their  predecessors,  the  Moderates,  had  tyrannised.  They 
would  not  accept  unlimited  right  of  judgment,  while  the 
people  could  only  formulate  objections.  They  demanded 
that  the  spiritual  will  of  the  people  should  be  sacred 
from  enforcement,  either  by  Church  officers  or  by  State 
officers. 

If  anything  could  lend  a  tragic  dignity  to  this  letter, 
it  would  have  been  its  formal  association  with  the 
sovereign.  That  kind,  good  lady,  whose  heart  and  the 
heart  of  Scotland  found  each  other  out  so  soon,  and  have 


THE  Q  UEEirS  LE  TTER.  307 

remained  faithful  to  each  other  so  long,  knows  and  values 
all  the  branches  of  the  Church  in  Scotland.  Her  Majesty, 
with  her  revered  Consort,  sent  to  Scotland,  at  the  time 
of  tlie  Disruption,  the  distinguished  and  able  Sydow,  who 
drew  up  a  lummous,  nobly-toned,  and  conclusive  vindica- 
tion of  the  Free  Church.  Had  it  been  constitutionally 
Queen  Victoria's  part  to  deal  inoprio  motu  with  the  Church 
business,  it  would  never  have  been  so  ignorantly  and 
negligently  mismanaged. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 
t^e  Stee  C^urc^. 

"TTTHEN  the  column  had  entered  the  liall,  and  the 
^ '  ministers  liad  taken  their  place  in  the  centre, 
all  other  parts  of  the  immense  building  being  densely 
crowded,  the  first  breath  of  the  new-born  Church  went 
up,  from  the  lips  of  its  retiring  Moderator,  in  a  prayer 
of  such  "  thrilling  pathos"  and  "  overpowering  solenniity," 
as  befitted  this  appeal  from  earth  to  heaven. 

The  first  business  was  to  appoint  a  new  Moderator. 
So  soon  as  Dr.  Welsh  uttered  the  name  of  Chalmers, 
a  burst  of  acclamation  ascended  from  the  audience,  and 
they  rose  to  their  feet  as  one  man.  In  a  few  well- 
chosen  words  Dr.  Welsh  alluded  to  his  fame,  his  genius, 
his  crowning  glory  in  being  among  those  who,  "  having 
turned  many  to  righteousness,  shall  shine  as  the  stars 
for  ever  and  ever."  Chalmers  rose,  briefly  acknow- 
ledged the  honour,  and  gave  out  the  forty-third  Psalm, — 

"Osciid  Thy  light  forth  and  Thy  truth, 
Let  them  he  giiiih^s  to  nie. 
And  lead  nie  to  Thy  lioly  hill, 
Even   whore  Thy  dwellings  he." 

■MS 


THE  FREE  CHURCH.  309 

The  voice  of  the  vast  audience  rose  with  such  a  vohnue 
of  sound,  that  it  seemed,  said  Dr.  James  Hamilton,  who 
was  present,  "  as  if  the  swell  of  vehement  melody  would 
lift  the  roof  from  off"  the  walls."  Just  at  that  moment 
the  sun,  which  a  heavy  thunderstorm  had  thrown  into 
almost  complete  eclipse,  pierced  the  clouds  and  brilliantly 
lighted  the  place. 

The  address  of  Chalmers  was  in  all  respects  worthy 
of  himself  and  of  this  great  historical  occasion.  He 
began  by  stating  simply  and  calmly  that  tlie  Legislature 
had  declined  to  concede  the  claim  of  the  Church,  and 
had  thus  made  subjection  to  the  Civil  Power  in  spiritual 
things  a  condition  of  Establishment.  With  as  serene  a 
sense  of  consistency,  therefore,  as  he  had  ever  felt  in 
defending  State  Establishments  of  religion,  lie  now 
announced  that  he  and  his  brethren  had  dissolved  their 
alliance  with  the  State.  "  "We  are  compelled," — these 
were  his  words, — "  though  with  great  reluctance  and 
deep  sorrow  of  heart,  to  quit  tlie  advantages  of  the 
British  Establishment,  because  she  has  fallen  from  her 
original  principles,  in  the  hope  that  we  shall  be  suffered 
to  prosecute  our  labours  in  peace  on  the  ground  of 
toleration." 

Clear,  comprehensive,  conclusive  !  If  any  fact  admits 
of  historical  verification,  it  is  historically  true  that,  in  the 
period  preceding  1843,  the  Court  of  Session  had  assumed 
complete  jurisdiction  over  the  Church  of  Scotland.  The 
sole  and  supreme  Headship  of  Christ,  as  explicitly  aflftrmed 
in  the  Confession  of  Faith  to  involve  a  government  "  in 
the  hands  of  Church  officers  distinct  from  the  Civil 
Magistrate,"  had  been  superseded. 


310  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Constitutionally  and  in  Christian  peacefulness  the 
Church  sought  refuge  in  toleration.  A  thousand  tunes 
have  feeble  or  half-honest  rhetoricians  woven  webs  of 
sophistication  to  confuse  persons  weaker  than  themselves, 
under  the  notion  that  toleration  offers  no  sounder  guarantee 
of  spiritual  independence  than  the  weighed  and  measured 
specifications  of  Erastian  Establishment.  But  whatever 
allowance  must  be  made  for  the  occasional  perversity  or 
extravagance  of  lawyers,  it  remains  certain  that,  under 
the  blue  vault  of  toleration,  the  free  Churches  of  Great 
Britain  enjoy  every  essential  of  spuitual  freedom.  Could 
Queen  or  Parliament  command  Dr.  Dale,  of  Birmingham, 
to  ordain  a  man  pastor  to  a  reclaiming  congregation  ? 
If  the  person  in  question  told  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench 
that  ten  thousand  pounds  of  property  depended  for  him 
upon  Dr.  Dale's  being  commanded  to  ordam  him,  would 
the  Court  fine,  or  reprimand,  or  threaten  to  imprison  Dr. 
Dale  for  declining  to  do  so  ?  The  justice  of  a  strong, 
free,  and  noble  nation  is  a  mighty  guarantee,  and  so 
long  as  British  freedom  endures,  and  Congregationalists, 
Romanists,  and  Presbyterians  pay  their  own  way  and 
])reak  no  civil  law,  they  will  enjoy  spiritual  freedom  and 
self-government  under  the  open  sky  of  toleration. 

Chalmers  then  alluded  in  seemly  and  modest  terms  to 
the  sacrifices  made  by  the  brethren.  "  It  is  well  that  you 
should  have  been  strengthened  by  your  Master  in  heaven 
to  make  the  surrender  you  have  done  of  ever}i;hing  that 
is  dear  to  nature,  casting  aside  all  your  earthly  depend- 
ence rather  than  offend  conscience,  incur  the  guilt  of 
sinful  compliance  by  thwarting  your  own  sense  of  duty,  and 
run  counter  to  tlie  Bilile,  our  great  Church  Directory  and 


THE  FREE  CHURCH.  311 

statute-book."  And  from  this  he  passed  on  to  expatiate 
on  one  of  his  favourite  ideas.  "  We  read,"  he  said,  "  in 
the  Scriptures,  and  I  believe  it  will  be  found  true  in  tlie 
history  and  experience  of  God's  people,  that  there  is  a 
certain  light  and  joyfulness  and  elevation  of  spirit 
consequent  upon  a  moral  achievement  such  as  this. 
Apart  from  Christianity  altogether,  there  has  been 
realised  a  joyfulness  of  heart,  a  proud  swelling  of  con- 
scious integrity,  when  a  conquest  has  been  effected  by 
the  higher  over  the  inferior  powers  of  our  nature ;  and 
so  among  Christians  there  is  a  legitimate  glorying,  as 
when  the  disciples  of  old  gloried  in  the  midst  of  their 
tribulations  when  the  spirit  of  glory  and  of  God  rested 
on  them,  when  they  were  made  partakers  of  the  Divine 
nature,  and  escaped  the  corruption  that  is  in  the  world  : 
or  as  when  the  Apostle  Paul  rejoiced  in  the  testimony 
of  his  conscience.  But  let  us  not  forget  in  the  midst  of 
this  rejoicing  the  deep  humility  that  pervaded  their  songs 
of  exultation." 

Thus  was  inaugurated  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 
The  State  Church  experiment,  conducted  under  circum- 
stances of  peculiar  advantage,  had  broken  down.  Dr. 
George  Hill,  the  glory  of  the  Moderates,  had  told  his 
students,  of  whom  the  most  illustrious  headed  this 
exodus,  that  "  as  the  Church  did  exist  before  it  was 
united  with  the  State,  it  may  exist  without  any  sucli 
union;"  and  Chalmers  now  obeyed  his  teacher,  and  led 
the  Church  into  freedom.  What  did  we  hear  Hill  saying 
at  the  outset  ?  "  If  the  Church,  instead  of  deriving  any 
benefit  from  the  State,  were  opposed  and  persecuted  by 
the  Civil  Magistrate,  it  would  be  not   only   proper,  but 


312  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

necessary,  to  put  forth  of  herself  those  powers  which, 
in  more  favourable  circumstances,  she  chooses  only  to 
exercise  in  conjunction  with  the  State."  When  we  read 
the  unanswered  and  unanswerable  Claim  of  Eight,  and 
realise  how  completely,  how  contemptuously,  the  Court 
of  Session  had  in  those  years  scoffed  aside  as  a  mere 
nonentity  —  a  fantastic  invisibility  interposed  between 
property  and  the  Civil  Power — the  spiritual  jurisdiction 
of  the  Church,  we  may  indeed  wonder  how  Dr.  Cook 
and  his  associates  could  believe  themselves  true,  in  act 
as  well  as  in  word,  to  the  noblest  traditions  even  of  the 
Moderate  party.  The  State  Churches  that  arose  in  the 
wake  of  the  Eeformation  deserve  that  respect  which 
pertains  to  all  institutions  that  have  been  used  by 
Providence,  and  have  done  good  in  their  time.  The  best 
and  bravest  of  them  now  broke  first  into  freedom, — 
appropriately  so,  as  the  strongest  bud  is  first  in  bloom, 
and  the  strongest  eaglet  is  the  first  to  leave  the  shelter- 
ing eyrie  on  the  crag. 


CHAPTEE  XXXVII. 

TT  will  1)6  in  place  to  devote  a  few  sentences  to 
J-  knitting  up  historically  the  event  just  witnessed, 
and  estimating  its  bearing  upon  the  testimony  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  to  the  grand  principle  of  Christian 
catholicity,  the  Headship  of  our  Lord. 

It  was  luider  fav(juring  providential  conditions  that 
the  Church  entered,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  on  the 
particular  path  of  witness-bearing  that  lay  before  her. 
Knox  and  her  reformers  in  general  were  thoroughly 
cosmopolitan,  having  been  at  home  in  England,  in  Frank- 
fort, in  Geneva,  wherever  the  foremost  ideas  of  the 
time  were  most  visibly  in  front.  A  weak  monarch  in 
Scotland  presented  opportunities  which  the  hard,  able, 
and  tyrannical  Tudors  denied  to  the  Eeforming  party 
in  England.  In  her  early  history  the  Church  laid  her 
hold  upon  the  affections  of  the  people,  and  possessed 
in  her  Assembly,  to  use  the  words  of  Professor  Charteris, 
"  a  free  and  popular  Parliament  when  the  Crown  was 
despotic  and  when  the  nobles  were  in  anarchy."  It  was 
hardly  perhaps  so  much  in  the  way  of  expressly  formulat- 


314  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

ing  a  dogma,  though  this  was  by  implication  effected,  as 
by  practical  exercise  of  the  natural  rights  of  life  and  of 
growth,  that  the  Church  came  to  realise  her  sole  spiritual 
allegiance  to  her  Head.  The  spirit  in  which  she  recog- 
nised herself,  not  as  the  Church  of  Christ  in  any  exclusive 
sense,  but  as  one  section  of  the  Church  of  many  nations, 
was  in  strictest  harmony  with  this  view. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  though  it  is  difficult  to 
repel  the  idea  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  was  in  some 
respects  decadent,  for  there  was  a  narrowing  Catharism 
in  the  seventeenth  century  alien  to  the  larger  spirit  of 
the  sixteenth,  she  did  not  forget  her  catholicity,  and  she 
inscribed  for  ever  in  the  annals  of  the  world  her  devotion 
to  the  Headship  of  Christ.  Tlie  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant,  as  she  intended  it,  was  to  be  a  token  of  amity 
and  Catholic  union  throughout  Eeformed  Christendom. 
She  placed  upon  the  portals  of  the  Shorter  Catechism,  as 
the  beginning  and  end  of  education  for  every  Christian 
child,  the  glorious  words,  closely  akin  in  sound  and  sense 
to  some  of  the  sublimest  ever  uttered  by  Plato,  "  Man's 
chief  end  is  to  glorify  God  and  to  enjoy  Hun  for  ever." 
And  it  may  be  claimed  as  due  to  her  influence,  that 
her  great  principle  of  the  Headship  of  Christ  was 
lucidly,  exactly,  indeli1)ly  inscribed  on  those  West- 
minster Standards  which  have  been  accepted  by  the 
Eeformed  Church  througliout  the  English-speaking  race. 

But  distinguished  as  her  seventeenth  century  record 
had  been,  it  was  shadowed  by  serious  drawbacks.  If  it 
could  not  be  said  that  the  Church  did  ever,  as  such, 
avail  herself  of  material  weapons,  it  could  not  be  denied 
tliat,  in  the  plenitude  of  her  power,,  she  was  perilously 


THE  TESTIMONY.       ■  315 

free  iii  making  the  Civil  Magistrate  indirectly  her  minister, 
and  even  the  sword  indirectly  her  weapon.  And  beyond 
question  she  had  not,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  attained 
to  the  grace  of  tolerance.  This  great  attainment  had 
been  facilitated  for  all  Churches,  long  before  the  Dis- 
ruption, by  the  century  of  suspended  enthusiasm  and 
vivacious  reason,  of  waxing  science  and  waning  supersti- 
tion, the  mucli  maligned  but  not  unprofitable  eighteenth 
century.  The  last  vestige  of  a  disposition  to  encroach 
upon  temporals,  the  last  trace  of  intolerance  and 
superstition,  had  departed  from  the '  Church  of  Scot- 
land before  1843  ;  and  the  Church  of  Chalmers,  Welsh, 
and  Gordon,  of  Candlish,  Cunningham,  and  Guthrie,  bore, 
it  may  be  candidly  maintained,  the  most  precisely  correct 
and  the  most  impressively  eloquent  testimony  to  the 
sole  and  supreme  Kingship  of  Christ  over  the  Church 
that  has  been  uttered  since  the  Eeformation. 

A  few  points  bearing  directly  on  the  edification  and 
the  efficiency  of  the  Church,  in  relation  to  this  doctrine, 
deserve  to  be  briefly  noted. 

It  fixes  the  gaze  of  the  Christian  army  upon  its  King, 
the  Divine  Personality,  Christ  Jesus,  whom  all  wise  men 
discern  to  be  the  epitome  of  the  revelation  of  God. 

It  reminds  Christians  of  their  privilege  and  duty  to 
carry  with  them,  as  emanating  from  Christ,  a  certain 
kingliness  of  spiritual  authority,  a  call  to  speak  in  the 
accent  of  conscience,  the  tone  of  the  moral  imperative, 
commanding  morally  sick  men  in  His  name  to  be  well, 
and  morally  dead  men  to  arise,  and  all  men  to  repent. 

It  broadens  out  into  the  blue  expanse  of  catholicity 
the  little  tent  of  sectarian  peculiarity,  and  tempers  with 


316  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

a  loving  spirit  the  arid  iutellectualism  and  negativism 
that  beset  Protestants.  Thus  is  smitten  down  and 
refuted,  in  the  way  which  is  at  once  most  conclusive 
and  most  conspicuous,  the  cruel  and  wicked  lie  against 
the  Eeformers  that  they  were  founders  of  sects,  preachers 
of  dogmatic  specialties,  instead  of  restorers  of  the  truth 
and  unveilers  of  the  Church.  No  words  ever  came  from 
the  heart  of  Luther  of  more  impassioned  earnestness  than 
those  in  which  he  expressed  the  wish  that  every  syllable 
he  had  ever  written  should  perish  rather  than  that  his 
comments  should  be  put  in  the  place  of  Holy  Writ. 
Such  was  the  spirit  of  all  the  great  Eeformers,  who 
with  one  voice  virtually  adjured  Christians,  as  Paul  did, 
in  tones  of  piercing,  poignant  entreaty,  not  to  put  them 
in  the  place  of  Christ. 

It  throws  upon  the  proper  shoulders,  to  wit  her  own, 
a  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  order  of  the  Church  and 
the  defence  of  the  truth,  not  permitting  Christians  to 
trust  for  the  purity  of  their  doctrines  to  civil  lawyers ; 
or  to  political  assemblies,  in  which  atheism  and  infidelity 
may  prevail,  for  their  worship,  discipline,  or  the  settlement 
of  their  ministers. 

It  pours  a  consecrating  ray,  direct  from  heaven,  upon 
all  those  operations,  missionary,  philanthropic,  educa- 
tional, in  which  Christians  work  together  for  the  pro- 
motion and  extension  of  Christ's  cause.  When  we 
observe  the  clumsy,  haphazard,  anarchical  machinery 
of  societies,  unions,  associations,  talking-clubs,  extempor- 
ised conferences,  congresses,  committees,  by  which  Chris- 
tian undertakings  and  Church  work  are  generally  carried 
on  in  England,  are  we  not  tempted  to  ask  whether  some 


THE  TESTIMONY.  317 

men  imagine  that  Christ  lias  positively  forbidden  His 
Church  to  manage  her  concerns  in  His  name,  on  the 
principles  laid  down  in  His  law,  on  methods  found  to  be 
expedient,  and  in  the  spirit  of  His  disciples  ?  Let  the 
sacred  right  and  duty  of  spiritual  self-government  be 
but  duly  apprehended  l)y  the  Christian  comnnniities  of 
Europe  and  America,  and  the  cliaos  of  denominationalism 
will  beam  gradually  into  a  world  of  order,  light,  and 
beauty. 

The  Headship  of  Christ  is  the  piinciple  of  catholicity  ; 
and  the  day  it  is  made  light  of,  the  day  it  is  put  aside  as 
obsolete,  will  be  a  day  of  perishing  for  the  Church. 
Better  were  it  for  her  that  she  should  once  more  betake 
herself  to  the  hill  and  the  moor,  that  her  membership 
should  dwindle  to  two  Christians  and  Christ  on  Scottish 
ground,  than  that  her  life-principle  should  be  compro- 
mised and  the  Headship  foresworn.  But  while  the  living 
Christ  is  her  Head,  there  can  be  no  risk  of  narrowness, 
no  mistake  about  catholicity.  The  Vine  with  the  surface 
of  the  w^orld  for  its  vineyard, — the  Good  Seed  with  the 
area  of  the  world  for  its  field, — the  Leaven  with  the 
atmosphere  of  the  world  for  its  medium, — these  are  our 
Master's  own  symbols  of  the  catholicity  of  His  Church. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 
^^e  ^uefentafion  Sun^. 

CONVOCATION  had  been  the  spmtiial  bu-th-hour 
^^  of  the  Free  Church.  All  who  felt  themselves 
embraced  within  the  fellowship  of  its  brotherhood,  and 
linked  together  in  the  inspiration  of  its  sacred  purpose, 
were  henceforth  free ;  and  it  was  as  a  Free  Churchman 
that  M'Cheyne,  who  did  not  live  to  join  the  procession 
to  Canonmills,  rose,  on  the  wings  of  his  long-remembered 
Convocation  prayer,  to  heaven.  Assembled  in  their  hall, 
under  those  same  leaders  who  had  helped  them  to  realise 
Christ's  presence  in  the  Convocation,  the  brethren  and 
their  adherents  felt  that  a  great  step  had  been  taken, 
that  it  was  well  with  them,  that  there  was  a  sound  of 
timbrels  and  of  dances  in  the  air,  and  that  the  Eed  Sea 
and  the  land  of  bondage  lay  behind. 

Need  it  be  said  that  the  foremost  leader  shone  in  the 
practical  part  of  the  enterprise  ?  The  name  of  Chalmers 
is  not  more  closely  connected  with  the  Church's  spiritual 
independence,  and  the  proclamation  of  the  monarchy  of 
Christ  upon  earth,  than  with  those  principles  and  methods 
of   Church   finance  which  are  suggested  by   the  mention 


THE  SUSTENTA  TION  FUND.  319 

of  the  Sustentation  rund.  The  point  to  be  realised  is, 
that  those  prmciples  and  methods,  while  intensely- 
practical,  partake  of  the  ideal  character  of  the  Christian 
Church.  As  a  political  economist,  Chalmers  had  the 
healthiest  sympathy  with  commerce ;  but  he  would  not 
have  admitted  that  Christian  pastors  were  competitive 
tradesmen,  or  even  had  a  right  to  look  upon  their  calling, 
as  lawyers  and  physicians  are  allowed  to  do,  with  an  eye 
to  social  and  pecuniary  success.  They  were  bound  to 
merge  the  personal  motive  in  the  sympathetic  glow  of 
pastoral  brotherhood,  the  sacred  es'prit  de  corps  of  mmisters 
of  Christ,  and  to  teach  their  flocks  to  rise  above  congre- 
gational selfishness  into  regard  for  the  interests  of  the 
Church.  Not  competition  but  Christian  communism 
was  the  principle  adopted,  and  no  door  was  left  open  for 
that  fortune-making  which  has  so  grievously  tarnished 
the  spiritual  glory  of  the  Christian  pulpit  in  London  and 
New  York. 

The  prmciple  of  a  Sustentation  Fund,  equality  of 
distribution,  and  this  alone,  can  obviate  the  extremes 
of  luxurious  affluence  on  tlie  one  hand,  and  of  strane-ling; 
poverty  on  the  other.  Not  that  rigid  rules  can  be  laid 
down.  It  is  out  of  the  question  that  absolute  uniformity 
of  income  should  be  prescribed,  or  that  the  attempt  should 
be  made  to  prevent  congregations  from  makmg  any 
special  additions  to  the  amounts  received  by  their  pastors 
from  the  common  fund.  But  the  benefits  of  the  system, 
m  securing  a  fair  average,  have  been  abundantly  proved, 
and  are  incalculable. 

Chalmers  had  been  strenuously  engaged  for  many 
weeks    before    the    Disruption    in   making   his   financial 


320  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

preparations.  Six  hundred  and  eighty-seven  associations 
liad  been  organised,  and  two  hundred  and  thirty-nine  of 
these  were  in  actual  operation.  Had  all  the  pastors  who 
adhered  to  the  Free  Church  been  thrown  for  maintenance 
upon  the  members  of  their  own  congregations  who  came 
out  with  them,  then,  in  upwards  of  two  hundred  instances, 
the  charges  must  have  been  abandoned.  In  any  other 
country  except  Scotland, — and  not  even  for  Scotland  can 
the  exception  be  pleaded  save  in  this  instance, — it  would 
have  been  thought  sufficiently  generous  on  the  part  of 
wealthy  congregations  and  their  pastors,  after  providing 
for  their  own  requirements,  to  start  a  society  in  aid  of 
those  crippled  congregations,  —  a  society  that  should 
institute  inquiries,  make  condescending  suggestions,  and 
at  the  end  of  that  humiliating  process,  with  which  poor 
pastors  in  England  are  agonisingly  familiar,  hand  out 
doles.  The  Free  Church  received  all  those  brethren  and 
their  congregations  into  her  arms,  providing  endowment 
for  almost  the  whole  of  the  Highlands.  This  involved 
a  self-denying  ordinance  on  the  part  both  of  the  popular 
Free  Church  ministers  and  the  well-to-do  Free  Churcli 
congregations,  as  deeply  imbued  with  celestial  fire,  as 
instinct  with  moral  nobleness,  as  anything  in  tlie  entire 
transaction. 

Candlish,  of  whom  Dr.  Gordon  said  tliat  lie  was 
"  essentially  an  unselfish  man,"  and  whom  we  saw  antici- 
pating the  principle  of  the  Sustentation  Fund  in  1841, 
was  at  the  tune  of  the  Disruption  loved  beyond  measure 
by  one  of  the  richest  congregations  in  Edinburgh.  In 
the  first  year  of  freedom,  that  congregation  subscribed 
about   £10,000    to   the    purposes   of    the    Church.      By 


THE  SUSTENTA  TION  FUND.  321 

merely  being  silent,  by  simply  letting  his  friends  enjoy 
what  would  have  been  for  them  the  luxurious  delight  of 
showering  gold  upon  him,  Candlish  might  have  been  far 
richer  than  before.  What  he  did  receive  from  his  con- 
gregation was  £200,  having  refused  to  accept  of  more. 
And  of  this  £200  he  returned  £50,  besides  declining  to 
take  his  share  from  the  Sustentation  Fund.  There  is  a 
chord  in  every  human  heart  that  vibrates  to  Christianity 
like  this  ! 

It  was  part  of  Chalmers's  idea  that  the  duty  and 
privilege  of  supporting  the  service  of  the  Master  should 
be  shared  in  by  all  members  of  the  Church,  artisans 
and  day-labourers  and  domestic  servants,  as  well  as 
by  marchionesses  and  millionaires.  It  is  beautiful  to 
observe  how  giving  became,  under  these  Christian  cir- 
cumstances, more  blessed  than  receivmg.  It  was  not 
on  the  thousands  handed  in  by  the  rich  that  Chalmers 
dwelt  w^ith  fondest  satisfaction,  but  on  the  pence  of  the 
poor.  "  The  liberalities,"  he  said,  "  which  have  been 
poured  forth  on  our  great  enterprise,  even  by  the 
humblest  of  our  artisans  and  labourers,  and  the  grateful 
responses  which  these  have  called  back  again, — the  words 
of  kindness  and  encouragement  which  have  been  sent 
from  all  places  of  the  land,  to  liear  us  up  on  the  field 
of  conflict,  and  our  tliankful  sense  of  the  friendship  which 
prompted  them, — the  amalgamating  power  of  a  common 
object  and  a  common  feeling,  to  cement  and  knit  together 
the  hearts  of  men, — the  very  emulation  to  love  and  to 
good  works,  which  has  given  birth  to  so  many  associa- 
tions, each  striving  to  outrun  the  other  in  their  generous 
contributions  for   the  support  of  what  is  deemed  l)y  all 

21 


322  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

to  be  a  noble  cause, — even  the  working  of  these  associa- 
tions, in  which  the  rich  and  the  poor  are  often  made  to 
change  places,  the  former  visiting  the  houses  of  tlie  latter, 
and  receivinc^  the  offerrngs  of  Christian  benevolence  at 
their  hands, — the  multiplied  occasions  of  intercourse  thus 
opened  up  between  those  parties  in  the  commonwealth 
which  before  stood  at  the  greatest  distance,  and  were 
wont  to  look  with  the  indifference,  if  not  the  coldness, 
of  aliens  to  each  other, — these  are  so  many  sweetening 
and  exalting  influences  which  serve  to  foster  the  sympathy 
of  a  felt  brotherhood  among  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  of  our  countrymen,  and  will  mightily  tend, 
we  are  persuaded,  to  elevate  and  humanise  the  society 
of  Scotland." 

It  is  beautiful  to  see  how  the  experiences  of  Free 
Church  finance  charm  the  ingenuous  soul  of  Chalmers, 
who  seems  never  to  have  once  bethought  him  of  the 
hard  things  he  used  to  think,  if  not  to  say,  of  the 
Voluntary  system.  It  must,  however,  be  confessed  that 
Voluntaryism  never  appeared  m  so  fine  a  form  as  that 
it  assumed  under  the  auspices  of  this  champion  of 
Establishment.  Nor  ought  it  to  be  disguised  that,  un- 
exampled as  was  the  success  of  Voluntaryism  in  the 
Church  of  Chalmers,  it  nevertheless  failed  to  reach  the 
height  of  his  ideal.  Never  did  he  see  congregational 
selfishness  so  completely  smitten  down  as  he  could  have 
wished, — never  did  he  see  the  cause  of  the  poor,  relatively 
to  that  of  the  rich,  in  country  or  in  town,  so  well  cared 
for  as  he  demanded, — never  did  the  liberality  of  Christians, 
splendid  as  Free  Church  liberality  was,  appear  to  him 
liberal  enough. 


THE  SUSTENTA  TION  FUND.  323 

But  in  truth  Free  Cliurch  finance  was,  and  has  con- 
tinued to  be  during  these  fifty  years,  a  notable  success, 
a  cause  of  thankful,  honourable  pride  to  Scotland  and  to 
Christendom.  Tliough  in  the  first  year  there  were  cases 
not  a  few  of  painful  privation,  of  suffering  to  the  deatli, 
— though  the  tremendous  effort  in  the  outset  to  build 
churches,  procure  dwellings,  and  provide  incomes,  told 
with  great  severity  both  upon  pastors  and  people, — yet 
the  position  of  the  Free  Church  clergy  has,  in  economical 
respects,  been  one  of  many  advantages.  Kelations  of 
warm  friendliness  have  subsisted  between  them  and  their 
flocks ;  and  if  their  money  income  has  not  been  large,  it 
lias  been  the  delight  of  their  people  to  make  them  par- 
takers in  all  the  bounties  of  the  season — fruit,  fish,  game 
— as  they  came  round.  Owing  to  the  beneficent  mechan- 
ism of  the  Sustentation  Fund,  they  have  been  spared 
the  perils  and  the  pains  of  dependence  upon  one,  two,  half 
a  dozen  opulent  or  well-to-do  persons  in  their  congrega- 
tions, and  have  been  under  no  necessity  to  wait  the 
convenience  of  heritors  or  factors.  "  For  the  twenty 
years  consecutively,"  said  Mr.  Sage,  of  Eesolis,  "  in  which 
I  was  a  minister  of  the  Established  Church,  I  did  not 
receive  a  farthing  of  my  stipend  without  a  grudge,  or 
even  without  the  curse  of  my  heritors  along  with  it." 
Their  delays,  their  litigious  disputes,  their  desperate 
niggardliness,  vexed  and  impoverished  him.  "  How 
different,"  he  exclaims,  ."  was  all  this  from,  and  how 
contrary  to,  the  treatment  which  I  have  uniformly 
received  since  I  joined  our  beloved  and  truly  noble- 
minded  Free  Church  of  Scotland !  Its  managers,  in- 
stead of  opposhig  me  or  adding  to  my  expenses,  more 


324  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

than  half-way  meet  my  wants,  and  even  anticipate  them. 
After  shaking  myself  free  of  the  Establishment  and  its 
annoying,  unhallowed  appendages,  in  joining  the  Free 
Church  I  may  truly  say  that  I  exchanged  debt  and 
poverty  for  peace  of  mind  and  a  competency,  enabling 
me  to  supply  my  everyday  wants  and  to  pay  all  debts." 


CHAPTEE  XXXIX. 
<t^e   (gftieetonariee. 

rriHOSE  were  not  days  of  cablegrams,  wlieu  responses 
-"-  from  India,  Australia,  Canada,  Chicago  could  have 
reached  Canonmills  in  an  hour.  It  was  only  in  faith 
and  hope  that  the  Free  Churchmen  could  in  any  measure 
realise  the  extent  to  which  they  commanded  the 
sympathies  of  Christendom. 

At  the  very  first,  indeed,  the,  leal  and  gallant  Presby- 
terians of  Ulster  held  out  to  them  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship,  and  the  Presbyterians  of  England  greeted 
them  with  acclamation.  In  due  course  the  envoy  sent 
to  report  upon  tlieni  by  Queen  Victoria  and  Prince 
Albert  })ronounced  their  argument  invulnerable ;  and 
Hase,  in  his  masterly  epitome  of  Church  history,  ranked 
their  exodus  among  the  sacred  episodes  of  Christian 
progress.  A  large  proportion  of  the  probationers  of  the 
Church — tlie  ministers  who  had  not  yet  obtained  charges 
— Ciist  in  their  lot  with  them,  and  almost  in  a  body  the 
students  of  theology  joined  them.  Dr.  Eabbi  Duncan, 
and  all  who,  with  hun,  were  inspired  with  ardent  zeal  for 
the  conversion  of  the  Jews,  saw  in   the  Free  Church  the 


326  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

most  accurate  realisation  achieved,  since  the  days  of 
Paul,  of  the  Christian  Israel.  As  weeks  and  mouths 
went  by,  Dr.  Chalmers  received  about  a  score  of  con- 
gratulatory letters  or  addresses  from  the  same  number 
of  distinct  Christian  communities,  representing  the  vast 
and  various  ramification  of  the  great  tree  of  Eeformed 
Christianity. 

So  soon  as  it  was  possible  to  hear  from  India  and 
other  outlyhig  portions  of  the  Mission  Field,  it  became 
known  that,  without  a  smgle  exception,  the  whole  of  the 
missionaries,  with  Dr.  Duft"  at  their  head,  adhered  to  the 
Free  Church.  No  testunony  in  her  favour  can  be  con- 
ceived more  weighty  and  impressive  than  this.  The 
missionaries  felt  themselves  spuitually  in  touch  with 
the  Free  Church ;  nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  larger 
part  of  their  material  support  had  reached  them  from 
men  who  were  now  Free  Churchmen.  And  we  cannot 
wonder  at  this,  for  it  is  first  and  foremost  of  the  Church 
of  all  Christian  missionaries  that  Christ  is  King  and 
Head.  It  is  of  a  Church  in  motion  rather  than  of  a 
Church  at  rest  that  we  have  a  description  in  the  New 
Testament.  It  is  marching  orders,  rather  than  du'ections 
for  the  pitching  of  tents  or  for  the  employment  of  tmie 
in  camp,  that  the  Master  has  left  us.  And  it  is  in 
connection  with  the  mission  enterprises  of  the  last  half 
century  that  the  Church  in  all  its  sections  has  most 
conspicuously  blessed  tlie  world,  and  that  blessing  has 
most  manifestly  been  refiected  back  upon  the  home 
congregations.  The  missionary  has  approved  hunself  the 
most  etticient  minister  of  civilisation,  the  man  who 
enables  the   untutored    child    of   nature   to  realise   that 


THE  MISSIONARIES.  327 

civilisation  has  a  heart  and  a  conscience,  and  is  not 
necessarily  an  invasion  of  fraud  and  cruelty. 

In  India,  in  Africa,  in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  the 
missionaries  of  the  Tree  Church  have  done  noble  work, 
and  have  been  honoured  by  the  Universal  Church.  When 
they  have  gone  out  mto  the  great  wilderness  of  pagan 
humanity,  the  difference  between  a  social  atmosphere 
impregnated  with  Christian  elements  and  one  where 
the  name  of  Christ  is  unknown,  has  been  felt  by  them 
and  all  missionaries  to  be  so  ereat,  that  the  things 
on  which  Christians  disagree  have  seemed  to  dwindle, 
and  the  thmgs  on  which  they  agree  to  rise  into  supreme 
importance.  It  is  seen  that  there  are  but  two  religions 
in  the  world, — the  religions  which,  having  served  their 
providential  ends,  are  dying  of  decrepitude,  perishing  ui 
the  dawn  ;  and  the  religion  whose  God  cannot  be  eclipsed 
by  civilisation  until  civilisation  reveals  somethmg  purer 
than  Light  and  better  than  Love.  Duff,  Moffat,  Living- 
stone are  household  words,  not  in  the  Free  Church  alone, 
but  in  all  Christian  circles.  "  The  lights  begin  to 
twinkle  from  the  rocks."  There  are  pohits  of  Christian 
illumination  gleaming  out  here  and  there  in  the  dusk, 
which  seem  to  announce  a  vast  extension  of  Christian 
influence  in  the  councils  of  the  world.  On  international 
peace,  on  commercial  righteousness,  on  all  philanthropic 
questions,  on  the  mercy  and  tenderness  due  from  man  to 
the  animal  tribes,  the  voice  of  the  Church's  Head,  speak- 
ing through  the  many  voices,  m  great  part  missionary 
voices,  of  His  Cluirch,  is  makmg  itself  heard. 

Eemembering  that  liberty  to  obey  Christ,  though 
infinitely  different  from  anarchy,  is  the  most  expansive 


328      THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

form  of  freedom  ever  bestowed  upon  men,  do  we  not  find 
it  pleasant  to  realise  that,  in  sending  forth  ever  new 
waves  of  missionary  zeal,  the  Free  Church  may  quicken 
in  the  future,  as  she  has  done  in  the  past,  the  energies  of 
her  own  home  life,  and  realise  with  fresh  vividness  her 
sympathy  with  other  branches  of  the  Church  ?  Such 
mission  journeys  as  those  of  Dr.  Norman  Macleod  and 
Dr.  A.  N.  Somerville  have  been  rich  in  benefit  both  at 
home  and  in  the  outlying  field.  Why  should  they  not 
be  taken  boldly  into  precedent,  and  a  ckculating  system 
be  established,  the  blood  pulsing  out  warm  towards  the 
extremities  and  returning  in  healthful  current  to  the 
heart  ?  Why  should  not  mission-pilgrimages  visit  India, 
making  the  simple  native  Christians  by  Ganges  feel  that 
they  are  brothers  and  sisters  of  the  Christ  and  the 
Christians  of  Britain  ?  And  if  India  is  visited,  may 
not  even  China  be  reached,  where  one  of  the  smallest 
but  not  the  least  loving  of  the  sister  Churches  of  the 
Free  Church,  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  England,  has 
long  had  a  flourishing  mission  ? 

Nor  can  a  word  of  reference  be  omitted  to  that 
missionary  enterprise  which  arose  under  the  influence 
of  that  remarkable  man  who  was  referred  to  as  Kabbi 
Duncan.  Mr.  Taylor  Innes,  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of 
the  Kabbi,  tells  us  that,  in  his  youth,  he  had  been  so  far 
off  the  Evangelical  lines,  that  the  strong  hand  of  Dr. 
Mearns  was  required  to  bring  him  back  from  atheism. 
In  his  wild  days,  teste  one  of  his  college  friends,  he 
fell,  like  Burns  and  many  another  gifted  Scot,  into 
intemperance ;  but  in  his  most  eccentric  moments 
the   fire   of   public    spirit   ne^'er   died  within  hmi ;   and 


THE  MISSIONARIES.  329 

one  night,  when  his  boon  companions  were  bearing 
him  homewards  on  a  shutter,  and  there  arose  an  alarm 
of  fire,  he  shouted  histily  from  his  elevation,  "  Water  for 
the  fire,  citizens, — water  for  the  fire  ! "  John  Duncan 
did  nothing  by  halves.  He  was  a  highly  successful 
student.  A  period  of  struggle  and  of  crisis  in  his 
spiritual  life  issued  in  what  he  definitely  named  his  con- 
version ;  and  no  sooner  was  he  converted  than  he  became 
an  importunate  preacher  of  his  new  faith  to  his  com- 
panions. Addressing  himself  with  his  usual  ardour  to 
the  study  of  Hebrew,  he  became  one  of  the  first  Hebraists 
in  Europe,  and,  as  head  of  the  Christian  mission  of  Buda 
Pesth,  opened  up  a  sympathetic  connection  between  the 
best  type  of  devout  minds  among  the  Jews  and  such  as, 
being  brothers  of  Christ,  claim  to  be  children  of  Abraham. 
Through  his  means  the  Saphir  family,  distinguished  for 
talent  and  fine  moral  qualities,  passed  from  Judaism  to 
Christ. 

Acquaintance  with  the  best  Hebrew  scholarship — 
Gesenius,  Hengstenberg,  Ewald,  and  the  like  —  tended 
doubtless  to  temper  and  expand  the  somewhat  rigid  dog- 
matism of  Dr.  Duncan's  first  earnest  belief ;  and  innate 
intrepidity  and  honesty  kept  his  ear  open  to  the  moral 
voices  of  his  time,  so  that,  as  Professor  Knight  has  taught 
us,  he  could  take  a  hint  from  Carlyle,  and  detect  the 
true  accent  of  Christian  song  in  the  hynni  of  a  Eonian 
Cardhial.  He  gave  the  New  College,  Edhiburgh,  its 
reputation  as  a  seat  of  Hebrew  scholarship, — a  reputation 
it  has  splendidly  sustained  under  his  favourite  student 
and  successor.  Dr.  A.  B.  Davidson.  And  now,  when  some 
one-eyed  personages  ask  whether  Christianity  is  not  dying 


SSO  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

off  the  earth,  we  behold,  under  various  forms,  a  develop- 
ment of  that  sympathy  between  the  best  Hebrews  and 
the  best  Christians,  which  Eabbi  Duncan  initiated  at 
Buda  Pesth,  and  which  may  presage  much  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  spiritual  civilisation.  Are  not  men  puzzled  m  the 
classification  of  a  Montefiore, — is  he  Jew  or  is  he  Chris- 
tian ?  Are  not  heavy-laden  Jewish  populations  in  the  east 
of  Europe  begmning  to  ask  wistfully  whether  Jesus  was 
not  their  brother,  and  why  the  Gentiles  have  had  all  the 
joy  of  Him  ?  Has  not  an  Adler,  leader  of  the  Hebrew 
community  in  London,  told  his  brethren  to  take  note 
that  the  deepest  spiritual  consciousness  of  mankind  has 
been  embodied  in  the  saymgs  of  Christ  ? 


CHAPTEE  XL. 

TTIS  part  in  the  founding  of  the  Free  Church  was  the 
-'--'-  last  grand  public  enterprise  in  the  life  of  Chalmers. 
Never  did  a  film  of  doubt  cross  his  mind  as  to  the  right- 
ness  of  what  he  had  done  ;  and  in  1847,  in  giving  evidence 
before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  he  dis- 
tinctly avowed  his  belief  that  the  schismatic  conduct  of 
the  clergy  who  forsook  the  Church  to  place  themselves 
under  the  Court  of  Session,  deserved  an  extreme  exercise 
of  discipline.  But  though  the  brief  period  of  life  that 
remained  to  him  was  beautiful  in  its  serenity  and  spiritual 
elevation,  there  was  a  quietude  in  it,  an  absence  of  jubil- 
ancy,  which  might  have  been  different  if  duty  had  not 
compelled  hun  to  part  with  so  many  friends  of  his  youth, 
and  if  the  end  of  all  his  hoping  and  promising,  in  relation 
to  the  Estabhshed  Church  of  Scotland,  had  not  been  so 
different  from  what  he  had  expected. 

The  peace  of  Christ,  however,  left  him  not  for  a 
moment.  Perfectly  sincere  religion  approved  itself  to  be 
in  his  case,  as  in  that  of  millions,  a  well  of  livhig  water 
in  the  soul,  and  he  needed  no  further  mechanism  tlian 


332  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

that  of  his  pocket  Bible  to  quicken  its  healing  vii'tue. 
He  delighted  beyond  expression  in  the  society  of  those 
Christian  friends,  of  whom  even  he  could  count  but  few, 
who  really  loved  to  engage  with  him  in  sympathetic 
interchange  of  thought  upon  the  incorruptible  riches  and 
the  immortal  life.  "  We  have  a  warrant  in  the  Biljle," 
he  wrote  to  a  lady  friend,  "  for  loving  much  : — '  Love  one 
another  with  a  pure  heart  fervently.'  It  may  be 
fervently,  if  it  be  jird  with  a  pure  heart."  He  rejoices 
in  the  universality  of  the  gospel  offer.  The  Bible  "  does 
not  bear  your  name  and  address,  but  it  says,  '  whosoever ' 
— that  takes  you  in  ;  it  says  '  all ' — that  takes  you  in  ; 
it  says,  '  if  any ' — that  takes  you  in.  What  can  be 
surer  than  that  ?  " 

Having  passed  beyond  the  pale  of  ecclesiastical  estab- 
lishment, he  soon  began  to  perceive  and  to  welcome  the 
growth  of  a  sentiment  towards  union  among  free  Churches. 
Were  there  but  cordial  fealty  to  the  Head,  he  set  small 
store  by  forms  of  administration,  and  was  careful  that 
the  liberty  of  any  one  body  of  Christians  should  not  be 
made  a  restraint  for  any  other.  He  too,  although  he  did 
not  live  to  see  the  express  initiation  of  movements  in 
that  direction,  may  be  enrolled  among  the  Apostles  of 
Union.  "  Co-operation  now,"  he  said,  "  and  this  with  the 
view,  as  soon  as  may  be,  to  incorporation  afterwards." 
In  May  1847,  silently  and  painlessly,  he  passed  away. 
"  He  sat  there,  half-erect,  his  head  reclining  gently  on 
the  pillow ;  the  expression  of  his  countenance  that  of 
fixed  and  majestic  repose." 

The  Christian  gentleman  !  So  stainless,  so  lofty,  in 
all  his  moods  and  haljitudes  of  soul.      "  Chalmers,"  said 


ROYAL  CHALMERS.  660 

Robertson,  of  Ellon,  "  understands  little  of  the  ways  of 
men."  What  a  compliment !  Meanness  was  incom- 
prehensible to  him, — he  had  no  organ,  no  sense,  by 
which  it  could  be  evinced  to  his  perceptions,  or  rendered 
intelligible  to  his  mind.  This  is  the  greatest  man  of  the 
whole  Evangelical  movement.  He  preached  philosophical 
virtue,  and  left  his  weighty  testimony  to  its  practical  in- 
effectiveness, and  to  the  practical  effectiveness  of  another 
kind  of  preaching.  "  To  preach  Christ  is  the  only 
effective  way  of  preaching  morality  in  all  its  branches." 
He  drew  out  in  theory,  and  exemplified  in  practice, 
exhausting  both,  the  Christian  method,  which  is  also  the 
sole  right  method,  of  dealing  with  the  poor.  If  you 
meet  with  any  true  word  on  this  subject,  however  new  it 
may  look,  or  any  sound  suggestion,  however  original  it 
may  appear,  put  forward  by  slum-worker  or  oracle  of 
Toynbee  Hall,  be  you  quite  certain  that  Chalmers  has 
anticipated  it.  And  as  a  piece  of  unanswerable  reason- 
ing, sound  in  theology,  sound  in  science,  sound  in  common 
sense,  his  Astronomwal  Discourses — an  antidote  to  morbid 
humihty  on  the  one  hand  and  to  spiritual  pride  on  the 
other — cannot  be  bettered.  His  ideal  of  Christ's  king- 
dom on  earth  could  not  be  realised  ui  connection  with 
the  State ;  and  great  is  the  honour,  but  great  also  is  the 
responsibility,  of  the  Free  Church,  in  having  received 
from  him  that  ideal,  to  be  realised  under  God's  blue  sky. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 
Cunningham,  ^c^ofar  an^  ConiroioetBiafist 

pUNNINGHAM  had  not  the  hrUHant  ideahty  of 
^  Chahners,  nor  the  lightness  and  velocity  of 
Candlish ;  there  was  beyond  question  an  element  of 
ponderousness  about  him,  and  there  was  little  magic  in 
his  pen ;  but  he  conveyed  to  a  vast  multitude  of  minds 
the  idea  of  being  substantially  an  abler,  stabler  man  than 
either.  The  prevailing  sentunent  among  Free  Church 
students  and  Free  Church  ministers  has  always  been, 
that  the  authority  of  Cunningham  on  any  theological  or 
ecclesiastical  subject  was  the  highest  that  could  be 
quoted. 

He  was  a  born  controversialist  in  the  best  sense  of 
the  term, — endowed,  that  is  to  say,  with  a  transcendent 
capacity  for  discerning  and  recollecting  the  essential 
points  of  difference  between  opposing  systems  of  thought, 
weighing  them  against  each  other,  and  striking  with 
exact  precision  the  balance  between  them.  His  specialty 
was  tliat,  with  this  faculty  in  transcendent  development, 
he  was  not  intellectually  a  trunmer,  but  a  man  of  decisive 
belief,  and  energetic,  or  even  impetuous  action.      It  was 


CUNNINGHAM,  SCHOLAR  AND  CONTROVERSIALIST.   335 

truth  he  sought.  In  rlietoric,  he  had  no  skill.  Seeking 
truth,  he  ended  in  conviction  ;  and  to  end  in  conviction 
was  to  reach  the  beginning  of  action.  Conscientious  in 
the  quest  for  truth,  conscientious  in  the  examination  of 
all  the  evidence,  he  could  not  without  insufferable  pain 
behold  his  conclusions  overlaid  by  the  cobwebs  of  clerical 
mediocrity,  or  obscured  and  misrepresented  by  the 
quibbles  of  professional  law  pleaders.  His  trains  of 
reasoning,  accordingly,  were  apt  to  terminate  in  the  rise 
and  thunderous  roll  of  his  moral  indignation. 

Cunningham  was  exactly  the  man  to  be  at  the  head 
of  a  great  institute  for  training  candidates  for  the 
Christian  ministry.  Acquainted  with  all  the  great 
systems  of  thought,  philosophical  as  well  as  theological, 
he  combined  with  his  dogmatic  firmness  a  very  large 
capacity  of  intellectual  toleration.  His  students  learned 
from  him  that  the  difficulties  which  come  up  in  theology, 
have  come  up  before  in  philosophy ;  that  a  man  may, 
as  a  philosopher,  intelligently  enough  hold  any  one  of 
the  great  contrasted  systems,  idealist  or  materialist,  and 
yet  be  a  Christian ;  that  for  wise  men  all  systems  lead 
up,  by  various  ways,  to  mystery  and  reverent  silence  ; 
and  that  a  sure  mark  of  the  sciolist  and  of  the 
A^ulgar,  voluble,  flippant  coxcomb,  is  readiness  to  solve 
insoluble  problems.  He  knew  infideUty  too  well  to 
think  it  would  conquer.  "  No  school  of  infidelity,"  he 
said,  "  had  exercised  influence  over  more  than  a  genera- 
tion." The  trepidation  and  the  exultation  raised  by  each 
new  chameleonic  variation  of  infidelity  south  of  the 
Tweed,  he  accounted  for  in  a  way  not  highly  compli- 
mentary to   England,  or  to   the   theological   colleges  of 


336  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

England  :  "  There  is  so  little  in  the  English  mind  ;  there 
is  a  want  of  clear,  definite,  theological  views,  they  are  at 
the  mercy  of  every  wind  of  doctrine." 

His  Calvinism  was  for  him  what  it  was  for  Paul  and 
Calvin,  a  taking  of  refuge  from  the  agonies  alike  of 
philosophy,  and  of  theology,  and  of  nature,  in  the  bosom 
of  God.  "  Shall  not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do 
right  ?  "  Faith  in  His  sovereignty  is  surely  more  reason- 
able than  make-believe  in  any  optimistic  trifling  with 
the  mystery  of  things.  Cunningham  liked  to  expatiate 
on  the  innvimerable  multitude  of  the  redeemed.  He 
looked  upon  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England  as 
fulfilling  all  the  requirements  of  Calvinistic  orthodoxy. 
Under  his  auspices  at  the  New  College,  speculative 
thought  among  the  students  was  bold  and  free,  but  he 
never  displayed  the  slightest  jealousy  on  the  subject. 

He  reflected  with  humility  but  gratitude  on  the  cir- 
cumstance that  it  was  he  who,  in  a  motion  made  in  the 
Presbytery  of  Edhiburgh,  initiated  the  movement  that 
issued  in  the  Disruption.  The  principles  contended  for 
had,  he  held,  been  "  the  peculiar  deposit  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  in  every  age ; "  and  he  viewed  it  as  a 
"  marvellous  token "  of  Divine  kindness  to  the  Church, 
that  she  had  been  again  honoured  to  contend,  "  as  before, 
for  the  sole  Headship,  and  for  tlie  sole  and  exclusive 
right  of  Christ  to  reign  in  His  own  kingdom."  In  the 
first  and  by  far  the  greatest  period  of  the  Peformation, 
the  general  system  adopted  in  outline  by  all  the  Eeformers, 
not  through  invention  or  excogitation,  but  by  simple  re- 
discovery in  the  newly-opened  Bible,  and  specially  in  the 
New  Testament,   had,   he   held,  been  substantially  that 


CUNNINGHAM,  SCHOLAR  AND  CONTROVERSIALIST,   337 

of  Presbyteriauism.  So  it  was  throughout  the  vast 
ramification  of  the  lleformed  Catholic  Church,  in  the 
national  Churches  of  Switzerland,  Holland,  France, 
England,  and  Scotland.  It  was  in  England,  and  there 
not  so  much  through  fault  of  the  people  of  England,  or 
even  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  of  the  Erastian 
monarchs  of  England,  that  what  Milton  calls  "  a  schism 
from  all  the  Eeformation,  and  a  sore  scandal  to  them," 
took  place.  Cunningham  thought,  liowever,  that  the 
Keformers  had  themselves  been  greatly  to  blame,  having 
Ijecome  involved  in  "  contentions  and  divisions  which, 
in  the  course  of  a  single  generation,  arrested  the  whole 
course  of  the  Eeformation." 

During  the  years  of  life  that  remained  to  him  after 
the  Disruption,  he  was  the  steadfast  friend  of  union  ] 
among  Christians,  wherever  it  was  based  on  essentials,  1 
and  recognised  the  Head.  But  although  he  was  cheered 
l)y  tiduigs  of  harmony  and  concord  from  Canada  and 
from  Australia,  he  found  that  proposals  for  home  union 
were  strangely,  lamentably  productive  of  wrangling. 
This  vexed  him  deeply ;  and  in  his  last  illness,  when 
his  mind  wandered  in  the  near  approach  of  death,  he 
twice  repeated  Melanchthon's  prayer,  "  From  the  rage  of 
theologians,  good  Lord,  deliver  us."  He  died  in  perfect 
peace,  saying  he  was  going  home. 

It  was  December  1861.  A  year  before,  his  great 
antagonist  in  the  Church's  battle,  Eobertson,  of  Ellon,  had 
died.  "  It  deepens  our  solenniity,"  Professor  Charteris 
touchingly  says,  "  to  remember  that,  when  a  year  had 
shed  its  showers  and  snows  on  the  grave  of  James 
Eobertson,  bleak  December,  whicli  had  carried  him  away, 

22 


338  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

bore  from  his  brethren  William  Cunningham,  They  were 
set  face  to  face  in  many  a  fight,  and  now  they  rest  together. 
They  cherished  mutual  respect  throughout  the  hard  en- 
counters ;  and  ere  their  labours  on  earth  were  closed,  when 
one  had  retired  from  pubHc  life  to  study  the  theology  of 
past  ages,  and  the  other  had  sacrificed  learned  leisure  to 
the  great  cause  of  the  evangelisation  of  Scotland,  they 
spoke  of  each  other  as  was  to  be  expected  of  true  men 
drinking  at  a  purer  source  than  the  muddy  waters  of 
controversy.  But  now,  when  they  see  eye  to  eye,  and 
dwell  in  the  light  of  God's  eternal  love,  how  unworthy 
must  seem  to  those  samts  every  feeling  that  erewhile 
marred  the  fulness  of  their  Christian  brotherhood ! " 
Yes,  every  feeling  that  did  injustice  to  each  other,  but 
no  feeling  that  was  only  the  glow  of  impetuous  ardour  in 
the  service  of  their  Lord. 


CHAPTER  XLIL 
Can^ft0^   an^   (Union— 3^me0   ^amiffon. 

TTirtEED  from  the  cerements  of  Establishment,  Candlish 
-*-  reahsed,  with  his  own  pecuhar  lucency  of  appre- 
hension, the  position  held  by  the  Church  in  relation  to 
sister  Churches.  "  It  was  as  maintaining  great  prin- 
ciples, and  suffering  for  them,  that  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land became  a  rallying  point  of  union  to  all  the  Churches 
of  the  Eeformation ;  and  God  has  brought  us  mto  this 
position  again."  He  struck  out  a  wider  principle  of 
unity  in  variety  than  had  been  discovered  by  Presby- 
terians in  earlier  ages,  but  one  that  is  of  vital  and  price- 
less importance  to  the  Eeformed  Catholic  Church  in  our 
time.  "  We  have  now  got  hold  of  a  principle  of  which 
the  Westminster  Divines  did  not  seem  to  be  aware, — at 
least  the  practical  application  of  it  was  not  before  their 
minds, — I  mean  that  of  Cliristian  Churches  coming  ever 
nearer  and  nearer  to  one  another  in  point  of  doctrine  and 
disciplme,  yet  still  deeming  it  right  to  keep  up  then- 
different  forms  of  Church  government,"  while  sympathis- 
ing in  their  efforts  for  God's  glory  and  man's  good,  and, 
of  course,  owning  the  supreme  Headship  of  their  Lord. 


340  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

There  was  a  beautiful  consistency,  a  precise  and 
peremptory  logic,  in  the  historical  account  he  gave,  from 
the  distance  of  1856,  of  the  Established  and  Free 
Churches.  "  The  date  of  the  existence  of  the  present 
Established  Church  of  Scotland  is  1843  ;  the  date  of  our 
existence  is  1560.  We  can  trace  our  unbroken  pedigree 
through  many  vicissitudes,  trials,  and  persecutions,  from 
that  eventful  year  when  first  the  General  Assembly  met 
in  Scotland ;  by  all  the  historical  signs  and  marks  which 
can  possibly  identify  a  national  Church,  we  can  certainly 
trace  our  descent,  far  more  clearly  than  any  bishop  can 
trace  back  his  to  the  apostles.  That  being  our  position, 
we  are  not,  in  the  exercise  of  any  false  and  spurious 
charity,  to  be  found  for  a  moment  admitting  that  the 
Established  Church,  as  it  now  exists,  is  a  Church  of  older 
date  than  the  last  thirteen  years." 

Very  soon  after  the  Disruption,  he  asked  the  question 
whether,  since  the  States  and  kingdoms  of  the  world 
refused  to  establish  Churches  without  extmguishing  their 
spirituality  and  freedom.  Churches  were  bound,  or  were 
permitted,  to  put  off  their  union  with  each  other  from 
abstract  considerations  as  to  the  duty  of  States  and  king- 
doms in  the  matter  of  Establishment.  "  Is  the  division 
and  schism  of  the  Christian  Church  to  be  kept  up  by  a 
question  as  to  the  duty  of  another  party  over  whom 
we  have  no  control  ? "  His  brain  and  conscience 
answered,  No. 

It  may  fearlessly  be  affirmed  that  each  and  all  of  the 
galaxy  of  Eree  Churcli  leaders  who  secured  unanimity  in 
the  Convocation  were  prepared  to  give  the  same  answer 
to     this     question.       Chalmers,     Cunningham,    Gutlirie, 


C  AND  LIS H  AND  UNION— JAMES  HAMILTON.     341 

Buchanan,  would  have  seen  the  reasonableness  of  leaving 
the  State  to  answer  for  itself,  and  proceeding  with  the 
positive  duty  of  gatherhig,  so  far  as  was  practicable,  under 
the  Church's  wing,  those  chickens  which  the  Establish- 
ment had  driven  into  the  waste.      Candlish,  Buchanan, 
and  Guthrie  entered  with  high  spiritual  enthusiasm  into 
this  new  movement,  and  round  these  the  young  men  of 
forward-looking  mind,  with  Dr.  Kainy  at  their  head,  were 
prompt  to  range  themselves.      Union  was,  in  the  view  of 
these  men,  and  first  of  all  union  with  the  United  Presby- 
terians, the  normal,  constitutional,  catholic  path  for  the 
Free  Church  to  take.     In  heartfelt  accordance  with  them. 
Dr.  Cairns  and  the  great  body  of  United  Presbyterian 
clergymen   and   laymen    hailed    the    prospect   of   union. 
The  great  Union  party  in  both   Churches  forged  no  new 
fetters    for  their  brethren,    added    no  iota    to    what    it 
was  already  permitted  them  to  believe  or  disbelieve,  but 
merely  asked  that  the  belief  entertained  as  to  the  duty 
of    a  third  party  should  not  be  an  insuperable  bar  to 
union  among  brethren.      Again,  again,  and  yet  again  did 
the  remaining  Titans  of  the  Disruption,  with  one  excep- 
tion, and  the   foremost   Free    Churchmen  of  the  newer 
generation,  vote  by  overwhelming  majorities  that  the  gates 
of  the  Free  Church  should  be  thrown  open,  and  the  free 
Presbyterians  of  Scotland  invited  to  enter. 

Not  a  little  was  accomplished.  The  principle  of  mutual 
eligibility  was  adopted.  Four  hundred  ministers  and 
elders  of  the  Free  Church  signed  a  most  important 
manifesto,  setting  forth  the  beneficial  results  of  the  con- 
ferences, and  inscribing  Union,  not  as  "  a  matter  of  dis- 
cretion, to  be  ultroneously  undertaken  or  abandoned  at 


342  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

the  Church's  pleasure,  but  a  duty  of  deep  and  abidmg 
obligation,"  on  the  banner  of  the  Free  Church.  But  Dr. 
Begg,  whom  the  heavenly  influences  at  the  Convocation, 
after  his  frank  and  honest  speech,  had  constrained  into 
still  nobler  silence  of  assent  and  acquiescence,  headed 
an  irreconcilable  minority.  Union  could  not  have  taken 
place  without  a  rending  of  the  Free  Church.  Strange  to 
say,— and  even  if  one  does  not  quite  agree  with  him,  one 
cannot  help  loving  him  the  better  for  it, — Guthrie,  the 
genial,  kindly  Guthrie,  who,  as  boy  and  man,  so  dearly 
loved  an  honest,  stand-up  fight,  was  so  deeply  imbued 
with  the  sacred  passion  for  union,  that  "he  would,"  says  his 
biographers,  "  even  at  the  risk  of  a  partial  secession  from 
his  own  Church,"  have  carried  out  the  hallowed  enterprise. 
"  It  clouds  the  evening  of  my  days,"  he  said,  "  to  think 
that  we  cannot,  while  retaining  our  differences,  agree  to 
bury  our  quarrels  in  a  grave  where  no  mourner  stands 
by, — a  grave  above  which  I  can  fancy  angels  pausing  on 
the  wing,  and  uniting  in  this  blessed  song,  '  Behold  how- 
good  and  how  pleasant  it  is  for  brethren  to  dwell  together 
in  unity.' "  But  Candlish,  Buchanan,  Moncreiff,  Rainy, 
and  with  them  Cairns  and  Ker  and  their  brethren,  felt 
that  it  was  more  in  the  spirit  of  Christ — more  consistent 
with  Christian  magnanimity — to  postpone  formal  union. 
And  this,  we  may  reverently  believe,  was  most  of  all  in 
harmony  with  the  Master's  will. 

There  was  a  perfect  absence  of  affectation  in  all  that 
Candlish  said  or  did,  and  his  boyish  naturalness,  com- 
bined with  what  may  l,)e  called  the  fiery  honesty  that 
was  his  habitual  mood  of  mind,  caused  him  to  convey 
to  superficial  observers  some  idea  of  harshness.      As  a 


CANDLISH  AND  UNION— JAMES  HAMILTON.     343 

disciplinarian  he  certainly  was  stern.  But  this  arose 
exclusively  from  his  sense  of  duty.  At  heart  he  was 
one  of  the  tenderest  of  men,  and  no  one  could  thoroughly 
know  him  who  had  not  rowed  with  him  in  a  boat,  or 
seen  hun  among  his  children. 

His  estrangement  from  Cunningham,  which  almost 
broke  two  of  the  noblest  hearts,  showed  that  both  were 
forgiving  men,  Cunningham  spoke  bitterly  of  Candlish, 
his  choler  for  the  moment  fairly  getting  the  better  of 
his  reason.  But  the  provocation  was  severe.  Cunning- 
ham justly  felt  that  his  services  to  the  Free  Church 
had  been  great,  and,  knowing  his  unrivalled  learning, 
and  being  Principal  of  the  College,  he  could  not  but  feel 
that  much  was  due  to  his  opinion  on  questions  of  theo- 
logical education.  He  was  convinced  of  the  importance 
of  erecting  one  great  seminary  of  theological  education 
in  Edinburgh,  to  be  a  Pharos  of  spiritualised  intellectual 
light  for  the  whole  Eeformed  Church.  Candlish  held 
that  there  ought  to  be  Colleges  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  Universities  of  Glasgow  and  Aberdeen.  The  Church 
took  the  view  of  Candlish.  The  Principal  saw  himself 
eclipsed.  He  felt  it  bitterly.  All  friendly  relations 
were  suspended  between  the  men.  Cunningham's  health 
gave  way,  and  it  reached  Candlish's  ear  that  a  journey 
abroad,  with  medical  attendance  too  expensive  for  his 
means,  was  desirable.  In  careful  secrecy,  with  studious 
delicacy,  Candlish  initiated  a  movement  for  procuring 
the  necessary  funds,  and  the  suggestion  was  so  energetic- 
ally taken  up  that  a  testimonial  of  upwards  of  £7000 
was  presented  to  Cunningham.  We  need  not  inquire 
whether    tlie    latter   ever    knew    where    tlie   movement 


344  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

originated,  but  the  friendship  of  the  men  was  renewed, 
and  Candlish  was  relieved  from  what,  while  it  lasted, 
had  been  one  of  the  greatest  sorrows  of  his  life. 

And  how  beautiful  does  he  appear  in  his  relations 
with  Dr.  James  Hamilton  !  The  men  were  of  contrasted 
types,  Candlish  having  a  strong  trace  of  the  Dantesque 
austerity,  the  Miltonic  Puritanism,  "  ever  in  the  great 
Taskmaster's  eye ; "  Hamilton  being  an  incarnation  of 
sympathy,  gentle  as  a  woman,  melodious  in  all  his  moods 
of  mind.  You  could  not  be  long  in  a  room  with  James 
Hamilton  without  believing  m  the  real  presence  of 
Christ.  He  and  Candlish  found  each  other  out.  Candlish 
said  of  Hamilton  after  his  death,  that  "  under  the  spell 
of  his  benign  and  blessed  temper,  always  givmg  thanks, 
converse  was  sure  to  cease  from  being  mere  earthly  and 
idle  talk,  and  to  become  serenely,  happily,  and  even 
joyously,  fellowship  of  a  more  heavenly  sort."  It  had 
been,  doubt  it  not,  in  the  ardency  of  their  love  for  their 
Master,  that  they  became  known  to  each  other  as  brother 
friends.  They  used  to  exchange  pulpits,  and  were  per- 
fectly at  home  in  each  other's  houses.  "  I  write  home," 
says  Candlish  to  Hamilton,  in  a  note  from  London,  "  to  say 
that  they  may  expect  the  pleasure  of  your  staying  with 
them  from  Thursday  till  the  beginning  of  the  following 
week.  Don't  steal  the  hearts  of  my  children  as  you  did 
before !  You  may  help  James  in  his  lessons,  but  don't 
captivate  my  namesake  Bo."  No  one  who  had  seen  him 
pulling  about  Bo  in  rompmg  games,  enlivening  the  fun  with 
jokes,  quite  on  a  level  with  Bo's  understanding,  about  the 
Goose-dubs  of  Glasgow,  would  have  had  much  apprehen- 
sion as  to  the  security  of  his  hold  upon  Bo's  affections. 


CANDLISH  AND  UNION— JAMES  HAMILTON.     345 

And  what  beauty  of  tenderness  could  excel  this,  in  a 
letter  to  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Archibald  Henderson,  who 
had  lost  an  infant  son  ?  "  Your  nice  letter  greatly 
pleased  me.  I  thank  the  Lord  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart  for  the  grace  granted  to  you  and  Archie.  I 
cannot  say  or  write  much  to  comfort  you.  But  you  are 
seldom  long  out  of  my  thoughts,  and  I  inwardly  mourn 
and  weep  with  you.  I  feel  it  is  a  knock-down  blow 
to  myself  when  I  look  back  on  the  delight  and  joy 
of  having  you  liere,  so  bright  and  radiant,  with  so  darling 
a  boy.  But,  like  you,  I  try  to  be  grateful  for  these  few 
weeks,  and  would  not  for  worlds  part  with  the  dear 
recollection  of  them.  It  is  good  for  you,  and  a  blessed 
reflection,  to  have  had  a  little  one  in  your  arms  whom 
Jesus  has  now  taken  into  His  own." 

And  think  of  this, — the  time  now  being  very  near 
his  death  :  "  That  forenoon  he  saw  little  Mary  and  John, 
his  eldest  daughter's  children.  They  were  lifted  up  on 
his  bed,  and  sang  '  Kock  of  Ages.'  He  kissed  them,  and 
said,  '  Love  Jesus,  and  meet  me  in  heaven.'  After  they 
left  he  was  very  much  overcome,  and  said,  '  How  these 
monkeys  get  round  one's  heart.  I  would  like  to  have 
seen  them  up  a  bit.' " 

His  last  effort  of  consciousness  was  a  warm  pressure 
of  the  hand  when  his  son-in-law,  ]\Ir.  Henderson,  repeated 
these  words  of  Isaiah :  "  The  mountains  shall  depart,  and 
the  little  hills  be  removed ;  Ijut  my  kindness  shall  not 
depart  from  thee,  neither  shall  the  covenant  of  my 
peace  be  removed,  saith  the  Lord  that  hath  mercy  on 
thee." 


346  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Of  Buchanan,  the  candid,  eloquent,  and  convincing 
historian  of  the  conflict,  and  of  so  many  others,  time  now 
fails  us  to  speak.  A  chapter,  and  a  long  one,  might  be 
devoted  to  the  eminent  men,  Hugh  Miller,  Fleming,  Sir 
David  Brewster,  who  pledged  the  Free  Church  to  a  con- 
scientiously bold  and  resolute  acceptance  of  the  truth 
of  science  as  the  truth  of  God.  Much  might  be  said 
also  of  the  contributions  of  the  Church  to  education,  to 
temperance,  and  all  good  social  causes.  Illustrious  among 
the  labours  of  Free  Churchmen,  lay  and  clerical,  have 
been  the  various  literary  efforts  and  issues  by  which  the 
fountains  of  theology  have  been  continuously  replenished, 
and  the  devout  learning  and  reverent  speculation  both  of 
Christian  antiquity,  and  of  Christian  Germany,  France, 
Switzerland,  and  America,  communicated  to  the  religious 
world  of  Great  Britain.  Under  the  auspices  largely  of 
the  Free  Church,  with  the  assistance  of  many  eminent 
authors  and  publishers,  the  reproach  of  being  unlearned 
has  been  effectually  removed  from  the  Eeformed  Catholic 
Church. 


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The  Kingdom  op  God  ;   or,  Christ's  Teaching  according 

TO  THE  Synoptical  Gospels.     New  Edition,  Revised.    lu  post  Svo,  price  7s.  6d. 

'The  astonishing  vigour  and  the  unfailing  insight  which  characterise  the  book  mark  a  new- 
era  in  biblical  theology.  In  fact,  as  in  all  Dr.  Bruce's  writings,  so  here  we  find  ourselves  in 
the  company  of  one  whose  earnest  faith  in  the  matter  of  the  Gospel  narratives  prevents  him 
from  treating  the  doctrine  of  Christ  merely  in  a  scholastic  style,  or  as  an  interesting  subject 
for  theory  and  speculation.' — Prof.  Marcus  Dods,  D.D. 

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ceptible gain  in  theological  knowledge.' — English  Churchman. 

Candlish. — The  Kingdom  op  God  Biblically  and   Historically 
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10s.  6d. 
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Cunningham. — Historical  Theology.     A  Eeview  of  the  Principal 

Doctrinal  Discussions  in  the  Christian  Church  since  tlie  Apostolic  Age.  By  the 
late  Principal  Cunningham,  D.D.,  Edinburgh.  Third  Edition.  In  two  vols., 
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Davidson. — An  Introductory  Hebrew  Grammar.  With  Pro- 
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The  Kevelation  op  Law  in  Scripture,  considered  with 

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of  the  age.' — Free  Church  MoiitlUy. 

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Land.' — British  Weekly. 

Hetherington. — Apologetics  of  the  Christian  Faith.      By  the 
late  Prof.  W.  M.  Hetherington,  D.D. 

lyerach.— The   Life   of   Moses.      By    Prof.    J.    Iverach,   D.D., 

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Lindsay. — The  Gospel  according  to  St.  Mark.  "With  Introduc- 
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Macgregor. — 'So   Great   Salvation.'      By    the    Rev.    G.    H.    C. 

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Hall.     Cloth,  price  Is. 
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possess.  .  .  .  The  author  goes  to  the  root,  and  neglects  nothing  that  usually  comes  under 
the  eye  of  the  careful  student.  .  .  .  Besides  all  this,  the  book  is  a  living  book.  One  is  con- 
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Nicoll. — The    Incarnate     Saviour.      A    Life    of     Jesus    Cln-ist. 
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Reith. — The  Gospel  accordixg  to  St.  John.     With  Introduction 

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Salmond. — The  Christian  Doctrine  of  Immortality.     By  Prof. 

S.  D.  F.  Salmond,  D.D.,  Aberdeen.  [In  the  Press. 

■ The  Critical  Keview,  Edited  by  Prof.  S.  D.  F.  Salmond, 

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is  ilear,  crisp,  and  chaste.     The  analysis  of  the  ethical  teachings  so  characteristic  of  these 
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cloth,  price  Is.  6d. 

Scott. — The   Life   of   Abraham.      By  Rev.  C.   A.  Scott,   M.A., 

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Scott. — Principles  of  K'ew  Testament  Quotation  established 
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Second  Edition.     Crowu  8vo,  price  4s. 

Scrymgeour. — Lessons    on    the    Life    of    Christ.       By    Rev. 
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'  A  thiiroughly  satisfactory  help  both  to  teacher  and  scholar.' — British  Messenger. 

Skinner. — The   Historical    Connection   between   the   Old    and 
New  Testaments.     By  Prof.  J.  Skinner,  D.D.,  London  (formerly  of  Kelso 
Free  Church).     {Privier  Series.)     Paper  covers,  jirice  6d.  ;  cloth,  Sd. 
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Smeaton. — The   Doctrine   of   the   Holy   Spirit.      By   the   late 
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Eeriew. 

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Stalker. — The  Life  of  Jesus  Christ.     By  Rev.  James  Stalker, 

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hook  Edition,  jirice  Is.  6d. 

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any  one  popular  work  so  impressively  and  adequately  represents  Jesus  to  the  mind.  ...  It 

may  be  despised  because  it  is  small,  but  its  light  mu.st  shine." — Christian. 

EDINBURGH :     T.    d-    T.    CL.4RA',    38    GEORGE   STREET. 


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Thomson. — Memorials   of   a   Ministry  :    A    Selection   from   tlie 

Discourses  of  the  late  Edward  A.  Thomson,  Free  St.  Stejilien's  Cliurch,  Edin- 
burgh. With  a  Portrait,  and  a  Biographical  Sketch  by  Prof.  Laidlaw,  D.D. 
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Thomson. — Life  of  David.     By  the  late  Rev.  P.  Thomson,  M.A. 

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Thomson. — The  Christian  Miracles  and  the  Conclusions  of 
Science.  By  Rev.  W.  D.  Thomson,  M.A.,  Locheud.  (Handbook  Series.) 
Crowu  Svo,  price  2s. 

Troup. — Words  to  Young  Christians  :  Being  Addresses  to 
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Walker. — The  Theology  and  Theologians  of  Scotland,  chiefly 
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Walker,  D.D.,  C'aruwath.  Second  Edition,  Revised.  In  crown  Svo,  jirice 
3s.  6d. 

'  Eloquen*-,  interesting,  and  informing.  .  .  .  We  know  of  no  volume  so  well  calculated  to 
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Walker. — Scottish  Church  History.  By  Is^orman  L.  Walker, 
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'  A  very  beautiful  account  of  the  history  of  Chureh  matters  in  Scotland.' — Presbyterian 
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The  Church  Standing  of  Children.     Price  4d. 

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Presbyterian  Church  Missioiuiry  Record. 

Welsh. — Elements  op  Church  History.     By  the  late  Prof.  David 

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7s.  6d. 

White. — The  Symbolical  Numbers  of  Scripture.  By  Rev.  M. 
White,  Blairgowrie.     Crown  Svo,  price  4s. 

Whyte. — A  Commentary  on  the  Shorter  Catechism.     By  Alex- 
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iiiuirdian. 

Smith. — Short  History  of  Christian  Missions:   From  Abraham 
and  Paul,  to  Carey,  Livingstone,  and  Duff.     By  Dr.  George  Smith,  F.R.G.S., 
CLE.     (Handbook  Series.)     Second  Edition,  with  additional  matter.      Crowu 
Svo,  2s.  6d. 
'As  a  hmdbook  of  missionary  history,  the  work  is  invaluahle.'— Sunday  School  Chronicle. 

EDINBURGH :     T.    ^    T.    CLARA',    38    GEORGE    STREET. 


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